3  1822024674673 


THE  RAILWAY 
REVOLUTION  IN 
MEXICO 


f  California 

Regional 
pacility 


Of 


N  DIEGO 


UNIVERSITY  OF 


31822024674673     r 

E^Bms 

THE 

RAILWAY  REVOLUTION 


IN 


MEXICO 


BY 


BERNARD   MOSES,  PH.  D. 

Professor  in  the  University  of  California 


SAN   FRANCISCO 
THE   BERKELEY    PRESS 

1895 


COPYRIGHT,  1895, 
BY  BERNARD  MOSES. 


PREFACE. 

THE  first  charter  for  a  railway  in  Mexico  was  granted 
in  1837.  It  covered  the  distance  between  the  City  of 
Mexico  and  Vera  Cruz,  with  a  branch  to  Puebla.  But 
the  project  involved  in  this  concession  was  not  carried 
out.  Several  years  later,  however,  under  a  new  charter, 
a  railway  connecting  these  cities  was  built,  and  for  many- 
years,  while  it  controlled  the  traffic  between  the  capital 
and  the  principal  port  of  the  Gulf  coast,  it  possessed  eco- 
nomic advantages  which  no  other  Mexican  railway  has 
had.  The  early  movement  was  not  prophetic  of  an  early 
development;  the  greater  part  of  the  existing  railways  of 
Mexico  have  been  built  in  the  last  two  decades.  At 
present  they  constitute  a  well-planned,  well-equipped, 
and  efficiently  manned  system  of  rapid  transportation, 
which  embraces  6,687  miles  of  track,  operates  632  loco- 
motives, 1,032  passenger  cars,  11,331  freight  cars,  and 
reaches  all  of  the  important  centers  of  population. 

The  notes  embraced  in  the  following  pages  were  made, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  paragraphs,  during  a  vaca- 
tion journey  extending  over  nearly  all  the  railway  lines 
of  Mexico,  and  they  are  here  printed  with  no  essential 
modification  of  the  form  in  which  they  were  originally 
set  down. 


CONTENTS. 

I.  Order 7 

II.  Population 21 

III.  Agriculture 38 

IV.  The  Cities 73 


(v) 


CHAPTER   I. 


ORDER. 

AN  adequate  explanation  of  the  fact  that 
Mexico's  latest  period  of  prosperity  falls  in  the 
years  of  the  commercial  depression  of  certain 
other  nations,  involves  the  consideration  of  a 
number  of  contributing  forces;  but  it  is  pos- 
sible to  describe  one  or  two  of  these  without 
thereby  intimating  that  the  others  do  not 
exist  This  is  what  is  done  when  some  of 
the  more  general  results  of  the  introduction 
of  railways  are  pointed  out. 

One  of  the  most  striking  things  in  the 
economic  history  of  Mexico  is  the  complete- 
ness and  persistence  of  her  isolation.  By 
destroying  this  isolation,  she  has  suddenly 
been  brought  under  the  influences  that  make 
for  social  changes,  and  we  discover  here  an 
excellent  example  of  the  transition  from  a 
stagnant  to  a  progressive  society.  In  order  to 
determine  to  what  extent  the  building  of  rail- 
ways has  been  influential  in  effecting  these 
changes,  we  have  to  take  account  of  the  fact 

(7) 


8         Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

that  the  Spaniards  acquired  from  the  Moors, 
during  their  long  association  with  them  in  the 
Peninsula,  an  indifference  to  roads  suited  to 
vehicles  with  wheels,  and  that  the  colonists 
who  went  out  from  Spain  in  the  sixteenth 
century  carried  this  indifference  to  the  New 
World.  Settlements  were  made  and  cities  grew 
to  importance,  with  no  other  means  of  com- 
municating with  the  world  at  large  than  that 
offered  by  the  Indian  trail  or  the  mule  path. 

This  was  not  a  matter  of  great  moment  so 
long  as  Spain's  colonial  restrictions  on  trade 
were  maintained.  A  few  Indians  or  a  few 
donkeys  would  carry  at  a  single  trip  all  that 
any  town  received  from  Spain  in  the  course 
of  a  year;  and  the  colonists  were  thus  thrown 
back  upon  their  immediate  efforts  for  the 
satisfaction  of  their  wants;  and  the  king, 
by  prohibiting  trade  between  the  colonies, 
emphasized  their  isolation,  and  indicated  the 
uselessness  of  means  of  communication.  This 
restrictive  policy  of  Spain  with  regard  to  her 
colonies  tended  to  place  the  European  settlers 
on  the  economic  basis  of  the  Indians.  A 
short  period  of  the  kind  of  life  to  which  they 
were  reduced  made  them  forget  most  of  the 
wants  that  had  belonged  to  their  previous 
station,  and  made  it  comparatively  easy  to 
provide  what  seemed  to  be  an  adequate 
satisfaction  of  those  remaining. 


Order.  9 

But  by  the  imperfection  of  the  means  of 
production,  and  of  internal  transportation,  a 
vast  amount  of  force  was  consumed  without 
great  results.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  of  this 
case  that  labor  was  cheap,  and  to  find  in  this 
a  justification  of  its  unprofitable  use.  Labor 
was  cheap  because,  through  the  force  of 
custom  and  the  restrictions  of  the  law,  it 
continued  to  be  used  in  such  ways  that  its 
product  could  afford  no  larger  compensation. 

By  referring  to  Spain's  restrictions  on  trade 
with  and  in  America,  the  accomplishment  of 
ends  with  rude  means,  and  the  employment  of 
human  and  animal  power  directly  with  little 
use  of  mechanical  appliances,  we  indicate  the 
early  character  of  Mexico's  economic  system, 
a  system  which  became  so  thoroughly  rooted 
in  custom  that  its  main  characteristics  were 
preserved  well  into  this  century;  and  some  of 
its  features  are  conspicuous  in  the  Mexican 
life  of  the  present.  Fruit  is  still  carried  into 
the  City  of  Mexico  on  the  backs  of  men, 
over  distances  requiring  journeys  of  several 
days;  and  when  you  buy  it  there  in  the 
market,  you  think  it  still  cheap,  from  which 
may  be  inferred  how  little  must  be  the  daily 
compensation  of  these  men,  and,  in  relation  to 
the  result,  how  great  the  expenditure  of  force. 

The  revival  in  Mexico  is  a  result  of  the  at- 


io       Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

tempt  now  making  to  set  aside  an  antiquated 
economic  system  and  introduce  that  which  the 
most  progressive  nations  have  adopted.  Prob- 
ably the  most  conspicuous  force  thus  far  ob- 
servable as  helping  to  effect  this  change,  has 
come  through  the  introduction  of  railways. 

When  the  railway  was  introduced  into  Eng- 
land and  France,  it  came  as  a  rival  to  all  sorts 
of  wheeled  vehicles  drawn  by  pro'perly  fed  and 
trained  animals  over  roads  that  were  excel- 
lent specimens  of  well-executed  public  works. 
When  the  railway  was  introduced  into  Mexico, 
it  came  as  a  rival  of  the  half-starved  donkey 
and  the  not  overfed  Indian.  The  transition 
from  the  freight  wagons  and  passenger  coaches 
on  the  great  roads  of  France  was  less  striking 
than  the  transition  from  the  beasts  of  burden 
on  the  rough  trails  of  Mexico.  The  time  of 
the  revolution  in  the  two  cases  was  also  im- 
portant. In  the  one  case  it  happened  before 
the  habit  of  much  travel  and  the  practice  of 
extensive  shipments  had  become  fully  devel- 
oped; in  the  other  case  it  came  when  the  lead- 
ing nations  had  become  filled  with  the  turmoil 
of  travel  and  the  transportation  of  goods,  when 
these,  in  fact,  had  become  the  characteristic 
features  of  modern  civilized  life. 

A  conspicuous  means  by  which  the  intro- 
duction of  railways  has  contributed  to  the 


Order.  1 1 

economic  revival  in  question  is  the  influence 
which  they  have  exerted  on  political  affairs. 
As  long  as  the  history  of  politics  in  Mexico 
was  the  history  of  successive  revolutions,  one 
party  after  another  laying  lawless  hands  on 
private  property,  economic  improvement  was 
impossible;  for  security,  the  essential  condition 
of  such  improvement  was  wanting.  Manufac- 
tures would  not  flourish  when  the  factories 
might  be  plundered  without  redress.  Goods 
would  not  be  transported  when  they  might  be 
seized  by  one  party  or  the  other,  under  the 
pretext  of  military  necessity. 

And  the  means  for  escaping  from  this  state 
of  things  were  not  at  hand.  Over  the  terri- 
tory of  the  republic,  extending  from  northwest 
to  southeast  a  distance  of  1,900  miles,  and 
covering  an  area  of  768,500  square  miles,  it 
was  impossible  to  move  soldiers  and  the  muni- 
tions of  war  with  sufficient  rapidity  to  prevent 
uprisings,  at  points  remote  from  the  capital, 
from  gaining  numbers  and  prestige.  Before 
the  Federal  forces  could  intervene,  a  local  gov- 
ernment might  be  overthrown,  and  the  ex- 
cluded authorities  themselves  be  placed  in  the 
attitude  of  revolutionists.  Rapid  transporta- 
tion, therefore,  became  necessary  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  peace  and  the  maintenance  of 
legitimate  authority;  and  this  has  been  fur- 
nished by  the  railways. 


1 2       Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

The  revolutionist  has  now  not  adequate 
time  to  gather  and  effectively  organize  his 
forces  before  he  is  overwhelmed  by  a  superior 
force  acting  under  orders  from  the  capital. 
Thus  the  first  important  service  which  the  rail- 
ways have  rendered  to  Mexico  is  to  make 
possible  the  maintenance  of  civil  order  and  the 
security  of  property — by  this  means  furnishing 
a  direct  incentive  to  industry  and  commerce. 

And  the  demand  for  peace  and  security  is 
bred  by  peace  itself,  and  grows  stronger  and 
becomes  more  universal  the  larger  becomes 
the  number  of  persons  who  have  accumula- 
tions at  stake.  Already  the  desire  for  peace 
constitutes  a  phase  of  a  new  national  senti- 
ment. In  the  words  of  one  of  the  most 
thoughtful  writers  on  economic  affairs  in  Mex- 
ico, "the  Mexican  people  do  not  want  to 
return  to  the  habits  of  revolutionary  days. 
They  are  becoming  accumulators  of  wealth, 
and  a  new  generation  has  grown  up,  composed 
of  young  lawyers,  planters,  and  men  of  affairs, 
who  lead  laborious  lives  and  are  well  fitted  to 
guide  the  destinies  of  the  republic  in  the  early 
years  of  the  coming  century." 

Revolutions  have  not  only  ceased  to  be  de- 
sired, but  they  have  also  ceased  to  be  feared. 
Those  who  know  how  firm  is  the  hand  at  the 
helm,  and  how  complete  is  the  information 


Order.  1 3 

possessed  at  the  capital  concerning  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs  in  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
country,  are  confident  that  no  revolution  could 
possibly  attain  threatening  proportions.  They 
are  conscious,  however,  that  for  this  state  of 
things  the  nation  is  very  largely  indebted  to 
the  sagacity  and  firmness  of  one  man,  which 
qualities,  together  with  his  marvelous  com- 
mand of  the  details  of  administration,  have 
made  him  master  of  the  situation,  and  the  ef- 
fective ruler  of  the  nation  under  his  authority. 
Knowing  these  things,  and,  consequently,  how 
much  depends  upon  a  single  life,  it  is  only 
natural  that  many  persons  should  manifest 
anxiety  with  reference  to  the  succession  to  the 
throne. 

The  building  of  railways  not  only  made  pos- 
sible the  establishment  of  peace  and  security, 
but  it  also  made  imperative  the  demand  for 
them.  Having  granted  certain  privileges  which 
caused  large  amounts  of  capital  to  come  into 
the  country,  the  government  was  virtually 
pledged  to  maintain  such  conditions  as  would 
not  be  an  active  cause  of  the  loss  of  value  on 
the  part  of  that  capital;  and  everyone  informed 
of  the  recent  political  history  must  confess 
that  the  government  has  very  generally  lived 
up  to  its  implied  pledge. 

This   was   not   easy,  for,   to   quote   from   an 


14      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico, 

official  publication,  "  Lack  of  order,  immoral- 
ity, in  fact,  crime  was  in  Mexico  almost  the  rule 
of  the  day,  and  this  not  alone  on  the  high- 
ways, but  even  in  some  of  the  largest  cities." 
To  those  whose  gains  from  highway  robbery 
had  not  been  very  great,  the  railway  trains, 
with  their  freight  and  baggage  and  the  ready 
money  of  the  passengers,  offered  a  more  favor- 
able field  for  spoils  than  had  previously  ex- 
isted. The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  appreci- 
ated this  fact,  for  on  one  occasion  he  said 
"that  in  the  beginning,  immediately  after  the 
establishment  of  our  great  railroads,  attacks 
were  made  under  a  new  form,  more  cruel  and 
atrocious  than  ever.  The  robbers  used  every 
means  to  throw  the  train  off  the  line,  in  order 
that  when  this  was  once  done,  they  might  pos- 
sess themselves  of  the  baggage,  merchandise, 
etc." 

The  knowledge  of  the  general  designs  of  the 
robbers,  and  a  specific  instance  of  train  wreck- 
ing and  robbery  on  the  Mexican  Central, 
roused  the  indignation  of  the  better  elements 
in  the  nation,  and  moved  the  government  to 
take  decisive  action,  which  placed  those  who 
violated  the  security  of  railway  property  in  an 
extraordinary  position.  This  position  was  es- 
sentially that  of  outlaws. 

This  fact  becomes  clearly  evident  by  a  brief 


Order.  \  5 

reference  to  the  laws  which  have  been  recently 
passed  concerning  this  matter.  The  first 
twenty-nine  articles  of  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion of  Mexico  constitute  an  elaborate  bill  of 
rights.  The  first  part  of  Article  13  provides 
that  "in  the  Mexican  republic  no  one  may  be 
judged  by  private  laws,  nor  by  special  tribu- 
nals." Article  20  affirms  that  "in  every  crim- 
inal trial  the  accused  shall  have  the  following 
guarantees: — 

"i.  He  shall  be  informed  of  the  basis  of  the 
proceeding  and  of  the  name  of  the  accuser,  if 
there  be  one. 

"2.  His  preparatory  declaration  shall  be 
taken  within  forty-eight  hours,  counted  from 
the  time  of  his  arrest. 

"3.  He  shall  be  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  witnesses  against  him. 

"4.  He  shall  have  access  to  the  information 
necessary  to  enable  him  to  prepare  his  defense. 

"5.  He  shall  be  heard  in  his  defense  either 
in  person  or  by  an  attorney,  or  both,  as  he 
may  wish.  In  case  of  his  having  no  one  to 
defend  him,  he  may  choose  from  a  list  of  per- 
sons appointed  to  this  office." 

Article  21  declares  that  the  application  of 
penalties  shall  be  made  exclusively  by  judicial 
authority. 

These  elementary  rights  or   guarantees  con- 


1 6      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

firmed  by  the  Federal  Constitution  were  sus- 
pended with  reference  to  all  road  robbers  by 
the  decree  of  May  17,  1886.  This  was  done 
under  the  provisions  of  the  last  article  of  the 
constitutional  bill  of  rights,  which  declared  that 
in  cases  of  invasion,  serious  disturbance  of  the 
public  peace,  and  other  cases  in  which  society 
might  be  placed  in  great  danger,  the  proper 
authorities  might  suspend  these  guarantees 
granted  by  the  Constitution. 
%  The  first  article  of  the  decree  referred  to 
simply  enacted  the  suspension.  The  second 
article  defined  road  robbers,  thus  specifying 
those  regarding  whom  these  guarantees  were 
suspended.  They  were  those  intending  to 
stop  trains  on  a  public  road,  with  the  purpose 
of  robbing  the  passengers  or  stealing  the 
goods  carried,  and  to  this  end  in  any  way 
destroy  or  carry  off  any  part  of  the  property 
belonging  to  the  railway,  in  a  word,  those  who 
lay  hand  on  railway  property  when  not  em- 
powered to  do  so,  with  the  purpose  of  injury. 
These  persons,  elaborately  described  in  the 
decree,  are  by  this  decree  practically  placed 
without  the  law.  "If  caught  in  the  act,  they 
shall  suffer  the  punishment  of  death,  without 
further  trial  or  proceeding  than  the  mere 
drawing  up  of  a  record  by  the  chief  of  the  ap- 
prehending force,  in  which  record  shall  be  set 


Order.  1 7 

forth  the  fact  that  they  were  taken  in  the  act, 
and  the  identification  of  their  persons." 

This  medicine  was  supposed  to  be  strong 
enough  to  effect  a  cure  in  the  few  years  it  was 
decreed  to  be  applied.  The  time  the  law  was  to 
continue  in  force  having  elapsed  some  time 
since,  it  has  been  deemed  advisable  this  year 
to  suspend  again  the  constitutional  guarantees, 
and  to  enact  a  similar  law,  which  has  been 
stated,  in  substance,  as  follows:  "Whenever 
any  individual  stops,  derails,  or  interferes  with 
a  train,  removes  fastenings  from  the  track,  puts 
obstacles  on  track,  or  destroys  any  locomo- 
tive, cuts  telegraph  wire,  or  destroys  or  re- 
moves any  of  the  apparatus,  thus  cutting  off 
communication,  should  any  such  action  result 
in  the  death  of  one  or  more  passengers,  rob- 
bery, or  any  other  damage,  and  the  criminals 
are  caught  in  the  act,  they  shall  be  shot  with- 
out trial,  but  the  commander  of  the  force  ap- 
prehending the  criminal  shall  report  the  fact 
to  the  proper  authorities.  When  the  criminals 
are  not  caught  in  the  act,  but  afterwards,  they 
shall  be  tried  by  the  nearest  authority  within 
fifteen  days,  and,  if  guilty,  shall  be  condemned 
to  death.  If  the  party  guilty  is  only  an  acces- 
sory to  the  crime,  his  sentence  shall  be  from 
five  to  twelve  years'  imprisonment."  This  law 
has  already  been  promulgated,  and  will  con- 
tinue in  force  for  one  year. 
2 


1 8      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

The  railways,  by  their  presence,  have  brought 
to  a  crisis  the  question  of  security  on  the  lines 
of  public  transportation.  But  for  them  and 
their  influence  on  the  authorities,  robbers  might 
have  carried  on  their  petty  depredations  on 
stages  and  mule  trains,  without  arousing  the 
government  to  determined  and  effective  action. 
The  development  of  the  railways  has  given  to 
the  question  of  security  an  entirely  new  aspect. 
The  magnitude  of  the  interests  involved  have 
made  the  demand  for  security  imperative. 

Here  was  a  case  where  the  government  had 
clearly  before  it  a  condition  and  not  a  theory; 
and  the  condition  had  to  be  changed.  Later 
it  might  be  possible  to  speculate  and  quibble 
about  individual  rights.  Here  the  supreme 
right  of  society  at  large  presented  itself  and 
demanded  recognition;  and  it  is  refreshing  to 
find  a  government  rising  to  the  importance  of 
the  problem  before  it.  It  did  not  entangle 
itself  in  an  intricate  web  of  speculation  as  to 
individual  rights,  but  recognized  the  fact  that 
great  social  interests  were  endangered,  and  that 
there  was  a  serious  social  disease  which  needed 
a  remedy.  It  recognized,  moreover,  the  sol- 
emn truth  that  it  is  better  for  society  that  a 
person  who  attempts  to  wreck  a  train,  whether 
successful  or  not,  should  be  dead  rather  than 
alive.  He  is  an  enemy  of  mankind  and  an 


Order.  \  9 

outlaw,  and  should  be  treated  accordingly,  and 
under  the  existing  law  he  is  so  treated. 

The  result  is,  railway  traffic  goes  on  undis- 
turbed. With  no  newspapers  to  publish  their 
illustrated  biographies,  liable  to  be  shot  with 
impunity  by  anyone  discovering  them  at  their 
work,  and  with  many  of  the  brotherhood  bur- 
ied where  they  fell,  robbers  of  trains  in  Mex- 
ico have  very  little  prestige  at  present.  Thus 
not  only  railway  transportation  has  become 
safe,  but  other  lines  of  transportation  have  par- 
ticipated in  the  good  result 

If  the  railways,  by  the  presence  of  their  large 
amounts  of  capital,  have  brought  on  the  crisis, 
and  thus  forced  a  remedy  for  a  long-standing 
evil,  the  government  itself  is  in  a  very  large 
degree  directly  benefited  by  the  result.  About 
the  time  of  the  opening  of  the  Mexican  Central 
Railway  the  Federal  government  had  not  suf- 
ficient funds  at  hand  to  meet  its  current  ex- 
penses, and  the  outlook  for  foreign  creditors 
was  not  hopeful.  The  budget  for  1895-1896 
shows  a  surplus,  and  the  state  of  Mexico's 
credit  abroad  has  undergone  a  very  flattering 
change.  It  would,  of  course,  be  unjust,  in  esti- 
mating the  causes  of  this  happy  revolution,  to 
leave  out  of  account  the  remarkable  ability  of 
Mr.  Limantour,  the  present  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  who,  though  still  a  comparatively 


2O      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

young  man,  has  won  a  distinguished  place 
among  the  leaders  of  the  present  administra- 
tion. 

Yet  the  achievements  he  has  made  have  been 
rendered  possible  by  the  security  which  has 
come  to  the  affairs  of  the  country  through 
forces  entirely  independent  of  his  action.  For- 
eign creditors  accept  the  railways,  with  the 
multitude  of  other  interests  which  they  have 
called  into  existence,  as  a  sufficient  guarantee 
that  their  investments  will  be  honestly  recoLj 
nized. 


CHAPTER   II. 


POPULATION. 

THE  introduction  of  railways  has  not  only 
affected  the  action  and  standing  of  the  govern- 
ment, but  has  also  set  in  motion  certain  influ- 
ences which  tend  to  modify  the  character  of 
the  population.  At  present  the  nation  is  a 
heterogeneous  body,  in  which  the  contrasts  of 
social  conditions  are  as  marked  as  were  those 
of  mediaeval  Europe.  Many  of  those  of  the 
lower  ranks  are  practically  serfs.  The  impor- 
tance of  the  strong  class  distinctions  and  the 
wide  differences  in  material  conditions  become 
clear  when  we  remember  that  the  character  of 
a  nation's  government  and  laws  depends  upon 
the  character  of  the  people,  and  the  relation  of 
the  different  elements  to  the  whole.  The  legal 
or  the  political  development  of  a  nation  is  not 
represented  by  the  laws  on  the  statute  books, 
but  by  the  laws  actually  carried  out  in  the 
government  of  the  people.  In  order,  therefore, 
that  there  may  be  healthy  legal  and  constitu- 
tional growth  towards  enlarged  liberty,  it  is 

(21) 


22       Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

necessary  that  the  various  elements  of  the 
nation  be  welded  into  one  homogeneous  mass, 
to  all  parts  of  which  the  written  laws  may 
be  made  to  apply  without  condition  or  res- 
ervation. The  conviction  must  become  a  pub- 
lic opinion  that  when  a  law  is  made  it  is 
made  for  everybody,  and  only  when  this  is 
the  fact  is  the  nation  in  a  condition  of  liberal 
development.  In  the  United  States  we  may 
easily  pretend  to  have  reached  this  condition, 
since  the  Indians  are  reckoned  as  no  part  of 
the  nation.  But  in  Mexico  the  Indians  and 
others  of  nearly  the  same  social  standing  make 
up  the  bulk  of  the  population.  The  polit- 
ical bearing  of  this  fact  is  readily  compre- 
hended when  we  consider  that  a  form  of 
society,  which  is  persistent,  will  determine  the 
form  of  the  actual  government  without  special 
regard  to  the  form  that  may  happen  to  be 
prescribed  by  the  written  law.  The  small 
minority  of  the  wealthy  and  cultivated  in 
Mexico  stand  as  completely  apart  from  the 
great  body  of  the  common  people  as  the 
nobility  in  any  European  nation ;  in  fact,  the 
form  of  Mexican  society  is  not  greatly  unlike 
that  which  has  always  been  found  in  connec- 
tion with  the  monarchical  form  of  government. 
While,  therefore,  Mexico  has  elaborately 
planned  to  be  a  republic,  the  unconscious  force 


Population*  23 

of  her  social  forms  has  driven  her,  in  spite  of 
plans,  under  a  government  which,  in  all  the 
essentials  of  its  spirit  and  practice,  is  a  mon- 
archy. And  the  evidence  is  not  strong  that 
the  government  is  likely  soon  to  throw  off 
this  character ;  for  the  Indians  and  others  of  the 
lower  stratum  of  the  population  are  appar- 
ently destined  to  retain  yet  many  generations 
their  relative  position  in  the  nation.  Until  the 
class  of  property  owners  more  or  less  cultivated 
is  much  larger  than  at  present,  we  may  not 
reasonably  expect  great  progress  towards  a 
real  republic,  and  this  increase  in  the  imme- 
diate future  is  more  likely  to  be  made  by 
immigration  than  by  the  rise  of  the  members 
of  the  lower  ranks.  In  fact,  the  lower  stratum 
of  the  population  may  not  be  expected  to  rise 
with  sufficient  rapidity  to  be  able  to  control 
and  direct  the  new  forces,  which  are  becoming 
manifest  in  the  country  through  the  present 
industrial  revival.  Wherefore  the  demand  which 
the  railway  age  in  Mexico  is  making  for  per- 
sons familiar  with  the  affairs  of  modern  indus- 
trial society  will  be  met  by  a  more  or  less 
extensive  immigration.  There  are  also  other 
forces  which  appear  to  make  such  an  immigra- 
tion inevitable.  One  of  these  becomes  evident 
in  considering  the  different  rates  of  increase  of 
population  in  Mexico  and  the  United  States. 


24      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

On  account  of  the  imperfection  of  the  sta- 
tistics it  is  impossible  to  determine  accurately 
the  rate  of  growth  of  Mexico's  population  in 
the  last  ninety  years.  But  to  affirm  that  it  has 
increased  from  5,000,000  to  11,000,000  is  not 
to  go  very  wide  of  the  truth.  With  reference 
to  the  United  States,  it  may  be  safely  said 
that  the  population  has  increased  in  the  same 
period  from  about  5,000,000  to  about  70,000,000. 
And  during  this  remarkable  growth  the  larger 
nation  has  been  as  well  fed  and  clothed  as  the 
smaller,  which  has  grown  more  slowly ;  and 
there  is  no  more  need  of  taking  account  of  a 
checking  pressure  of  population  against  sub- 
sistence in  the  larger  than  in  the  smaller  nation. 
There  is,  moreover,  no  more  reason  to  antic- 
ipate a  very  great  modification  of  the  rate  of 
increase  in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other, 
except  as  one  overflows  into  the  other.  But  a 
continuation  of  the  hitherto  existing  rate  of 
increase  in  the  two  nations  will  give  Mexico  a 
population  of  about  30,000,000  and  the  United 
States  about  600,000,000,  at  the  end  of  the 
next  ninety  years. 

The  two  nations  might  come  to  stand  in 
this  relation  to  one  another  as  to  numbers,  if 
there  were  no  means  of  intercourse  between 
them.  But,  for  good  or  for  evil,  the  barrier 
between  them  has  been  thrown  down,  and  can 


Population.  2  5 

never  be  set  up  again ;  and  the  rates  of  growth 
indicated  will  be  more  or  less  modified  by 
migration  from  the  nothern  to  the  southern 
country. 

This  may  not  diminish  materially  the  indi- 
cated result  as  it  regards  the  United  States, 
but  the  practical,  result  as  to  Mexico  will 
probably  be  a  population  much  larger  than 
that  suggested.  There  are  many  reasons  for 
affirming  that  the  coming  decades  will  witness 
such  a  migration.  One  of  the  most  important 
is  drawn  from  the  character  and  social  history 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  large  num- 
bers of  whom  have  been  for  generations  a 
frontier  people,  and  as  such  have  always  been 
ready  to  move  forward  whenever  the  pressure 
of  population  has  become  inconvenient.  In 
fact,  the  most  prominent  characteristics  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  are  those  engen- 
dered by  the  frontier.  Our  national  virtues  are 
the  virtues  of  frontiersmen,  and  our  national 
vices  are  the  vices  of  frontiersmen  recently 
come  to  town.  Our  acceptance  of  political 
equality,  and,  in  some  measure,  of  social  equal- 
ity, has  come  chiefly  from  the  equality  of  con- 
ditions in  which  we  have  found  ourselves, 
whether  on  the  frontier  of  New  England  or 
Indiana  or  Nebraska.  And  a  large  part  of  our 
country  has  as  completely  the  characteristics 


26       Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

of  the  frontier  to-day  as  at   any  other   period. 

As  a  people  of  the  frontier,  we  are  moved 
by  a  strong  desire  for  change  of  place.  The 
passage  of  years,  bringing  more  convenient 
means  for  transportation,  appears  to  have 
strengthened  rather  than  to  have  weakened 
this  desire.  Running  rapidly  across  the  conti- 
nent, as  we  have  done,  has  not  satisfied,  but 
only  stimulated  our  desire  to  move  on  to  some 
other  place,  where,  we  are  sure,  life  will  be 
easier,  and  the  good  things  of  the  world  more 
abundant,  and  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that, 
having  reached  the  Pacific,  the  force  which  has 
carried  on  this  great  westward  movement  is 
suddenly  to  cease  to  be. 

With  the  continuance  of  the  disposition  to 
migrate,  the  return  towards  the  east  will  be 
unimportant,  and  the  stream  that  might  flow 
toward  the  north  will  be  checked  by  the  streams 
of  western  migration  on  either  side  of  our 
northern  border.  There  will  remain,  however} 
an  outlet  toward  the  south;  and  the  opportu- 
nity here  offered  will  be  embraced,  partly  be- 
cause of  the  attractiveness  of  the  climate  of 
the  Mexican  table-land,  where  the  extremes  of 
temperature  which  mark  the  seasons  in  the 
United  States  may  be  avoided,  and  where  one 
may  have  ready  at  hand  the  products  of  all  the 
zones.  But  a  more  powerful  reason  for  this 


Population.  2  7 

southward  movement  may  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  the  commercial  sagacity  and  daring  of  the 
northern  people  may  find  here  a  comparatively 
easy  victory.  This  is  more  important  than  any 
consideration  of  climate,  or  accessibility  to  the 
luxuries  of  living,  for  the  dominant  motive  by 
which  the  great  masses  in  a  migration  are 
moved  is  the  desire  for  easier  gain. 

Already  the  belief  is  widely  entertained  that 
in  the  industrial  and  commercial  contest  the 
Mexican  is  destined  to  go  down  before  his 
northern  competitor,  and  this  confidence  spurs 
the  American  citizen  to  enterprises  here  which 
would  not  be  undertaken  in  a  land  inhabited 
by  Englishmen  or  Germans.  If  this  assumed 
commercial  and  industrial  superiority  exists,  it 
does  not  necessarily  imply  that  the  Mexican 
stands  on  a  lower  stage  of  civilization  than  the 
American ;  it  indicates  only  that  his  cultivation 
is  of  another  sort  We  do  not  accord  to  the 
Chinaman  a  superior  place  in  the  grades  of 
human  society  because,  if  left  unhampered,  he 
might  win  in  an  industrial  competition  with 
the  white  man  in  most  departments  of  work. 
And  yet  we  are  in  danger  of  concluding  that 
because  the  Mexican  would  go  to  the  wall  in 
an  industrial  and  commercial  contest  with 
Americans,  he,  therefore,  represents  a  lower 
degree  of  civilization.  The  qualities  of  a  sue- 


28       Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

cessful  salesman,  or  of  a  daring  organizer  of 
business  enterprises,  are  not  the  highest  human 
qualities  of  which  we  have  knowledge,  although 
they  do  much  to  advance  the  material  interests 
of  society,  and,  by  that,  indirectly  to  promote 
its  spiritual  interests. 

The  Spanish  people  had  once  an  opportunity 
to  acquire  those  qualities  which  win  in  the 
commercial  contest.  For  a  thousand  years 
they  had  lived  in  closer  intimacy  with  the  Jews 
than  had  any  other  nation.  The  two  peoples 
had  begun  to  intermarry  with  one  another,  and 
there  seemed  to  be  nothing  in  the  way  of  a 
complete  amalgamation,  when  the  Jews  were 
overwhelmed  by  the  edict  of  exile,  and  by  this 
their  hopes  were  blasted.  And  by  this  also 
the  Spanish  threw  away  their  opportunity  of 
becoming  able  to  engage  with  success  in  the 
industrial  and  commercial  competition  of  the 
world.  By  incorporating  the  Jew  and  making 
him  a  part  of  the  nation,  they  might  have 
become  endowed  with  his  marvelous  ability. 
By  sending  him  into  exile  they  rejected  their 
only  opportunity  of  becoming  able  to  take 
conspicuous  rank  as  an  industrial  and  commer- 
cial people.  With  more  extensive  resources 
than  any  other  nation,  with  the  better  part  of 
a  continent  of  untold  wealth  in  their  power, 
they  have  constantly  played  a  losing  game,  and 


Population.  29 

the  heritage  of  their  peculiar  incompetency  has 
descended  upon  their  children  and  their  chil- 
dren's children,  even  to  the  present  generation. 
The  history  of  the  Spanish  people,  both  in 
Spain  and  in  America,  is  the  history  of  eco- 
nomic incompetency.  The  great  enterprises 
of  Spain  are  to-day  in  the  hands  of  foreigners. 
It  is  foreign  capital  and  foreign  force  and 
sagacity  that  are  rousing  Mexico  from  her 
slumber  of  centuries. 

Given  this  superior  efficiency  of  the  foreigner 
in  matters  of  business,  there  is  only  wanting 
the  opportunity  afforded  by  adequate  means  of 
communication  to  insure  his  peaceful  invasion. 
And  these  means  have  been  abundantly  pro- 
vided. Four  distinct  gateways  to  Central 
Mexico  have  been  opened  within  a  compara- 
tively few  years.  Vera  Cruz,  of  course,  has 
been  open  for  centuries.  It  was  used  as  a  port 
for  Mexico  when  there  was  only  one  other  port 
of  the  Spanish  possessions  in  America  open  to 
the  trade  of  Europe,  which  meant  the  trade  of 
Spain.  The  other  port  was  Porto  Bello,  on  the 
Isthmus.  For  generations  the  only  trade  that 
existed  between  Spain  and  its  American  colonies 
passed  between  Seville,  in  Spain,  and  Porto 
Bello  and  Vera  Cruz,  in  America.  Once  a 
year  the  tub-like  ships  of  the  Spanish,  popu- 
larly known  as  the  stately  galleons,  anchored 


30      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

off  Vera  Cruz,  discharged  their  cargoes  of  Eu- 
ropean wares,  and  took  on  board  the  products 
of  Mexico.  Then  they  sailed  away,  and  the 
port  slept  for  another  year,  till  the  return  of  the 
fleet. 

In  contrast  with  this  isolation  of  the  colonial 
days,  mark  the  present  relation  of  Mexico  to 
the  rest  of  the  world.  The  port  of  Vera  Cruz 
is  open  to  the  vessels  of  all  nations,  and  two 
railways  connect  it  with  the  capital  and  the 
other  interior  towns.  By  a  system  of  jetties, 
constructed  by  the  Mexican  Central  Railway, 
the  bar  that  closed  the  harbor  of  Tampico  has 
been  scoured  away,  and  ocean  vessels  now 
ascend  the  river  Panuco  seven  miles,  to  the  an- 
cient town  of  Tampico.  Here  they  may  anchor 
in  perfect  safety  and  discharge  their  cargoes 
and  passengers  without  lighterage  or  transfer. 
Thus  there  has  been  opened  to  Mexican  ship- 
ping an  inland  harbor  on  the  eastern  coast, 
free  from  the  storms  which  make  the  roadstead 
of  Vera  Cruz  sometimes  inconvenient  and  dan- 
gerous. And  the  new  port  of  Tampico  has 
already  regular  lines  of  steamers  connecting  it 
with  New  York,  Mobile,  Havana,  and  European 
ports.  While  this  is  the  first  inland  port  that 
has  been  opened  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Mexico 
the  western  shore  has,  it  is  true,  good  harbors; 
but  they  are  of  comparatively  little  advantage, 


Population.  3 1 

for  two  reasons :  they  are  not  readily  accessible 
to  the  markets  of  Europe  and  the  eastern  part 
of  the  United  States;  and  they  have  as  yet  no 
means  of  communication  with  the  important 
cities  of  Central  Mexico,  except  the  pack  mule 
and  the  burden-bearing  Indian.  But  by  the 
Mexican  Gulf  Railway,  running  northwestward 
to  Monterey,  and  by  the  branch  of  the  Mexican 
Central,  which  runs  through  San  Luis  Potosi, 
the  port  of  Tampico  is  brought  into  immediate 
communication  with  the  great  internal  system 
of  Mexican  railways. 

Tampico  is  clearly  destined  to  be  the  strong 
rival  of  Vera  Cruz,  which  has  long  had  a 
practical  monopoly  of  Mexico's  external  trade 
toward  the  east  The  New  York  and  Cuba 
Mail  Steamship  Company's  line  of  steamers 
make  direct  weekly  sailings  between  New  York 
and  Tampico.  Conspicuous  among  the  other 
lines  rendering  regular  service  to  and  from  this 
port  are  the  Hamburg-American  Packet  Com- 
pany, the  Harrison  Steamship  Company,  the 
West  India  arid  Pacific  Steamship  Company, 
and  the  New  York,  Mobile,  and  Mexican 
Steamship  Company.  The  growth  of  the  im- 
port and  export  business  of  the  port  may  be 
seen  in  the  following  statement: — 


32       Raihvay  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

Tonnage  of  Tonnage  of 

Year.  Imports.  Exports. 

1885 9,672  7,603 

1886 10,824  10,696 

1887 9,731  11,878 

1888 13,817  7,893 

1889 H,67I  7,462 

1890 21,188  8,074 

1891 • 22,582  8,853 

1892 80,670  28,702 

1893 115,813  54.717 

1894 M3,3o6  48,780 

The  value  of  the  exports,  stated  in  Mexican 
dollars,  during  the  same  period,  is  as  follows: — 

1885 |     733.591  29 

1886 916,407  09 

1887 760,769  76 

1888 635,460  80 

1889 • 684,653  27 

1890 910,738  54 

1891 1,100,966  92 

1892 5>9io>390  63 

1893 10,015,145  35 

1894 13,465)830  oo 

The  rapid  and  constant  increase  of  exports 
and  imports  by  way  of  Tampico  since  1888 
may  be  compared  with  exports  and  imports  by 
way  of  Juarez,  the  northern  terminus  of  the 
Mexican  Central  Railway.  The  imports  to 
Mexico  and  the  exports  from  that  country  at 
this  point,  were  as  follows : — 


Population.  33 

Year.  Imports — pounds.        Exports — pounds. 

1889 33)472,55°  128,375,414 

1890 52,468,776  140,058,456 

1891 77,454,031  207,670,788 

1892 136,973,330  241,891,731 

1893 46,665,395  100,014,387 

1894 27,576,736  28,015,122 

The  Tampico  figures  show  a  strong  increase, 
while  the  Juarez  account  shows  an  increase 
followed  by  a  sharp  decrease.  The  decrease  is 
very  largely  due  to  the  falling  off  in  shipments 
of  ore  from  Mexico  to  the  United  States,  and 
this  falling  off  is  in  turn  due  to  the  development 
of  smelting  works  in  Mexico  at  which  the  ore 
mined  in  Mexico  is  smelted. 

Furthermore,  travelers  who  wish  to  reach 
Mexico  by  sea  from  New  York  or  New  Orleans 
are  likely  to  find  Tampico  an  agreeable  port  of 
entry,  and  those  who  enter  the  republic  by 
this  route  have  a  certain  advantage  over  those 
who  enter  through  Laredo,  Eagle  Pass,  or  El 
Paso,  for  in  ascending  to  the  table-land  by  the 
Tampico  branch  of  the  Mexican  Central  Rail- 
way, they  are  carried  through  some  of  the 
finest  mountain  scenery  of  Mexico.  Those  who 
enter  by  any  one  of  the  other  three  gates  are 
obliged  to  pass  over  many  miles  of  arid  country 
before  the  natural  beauties  of  Mexico  rise  above 
their  horizon.  Those  from  the  western  and 
middle  portions  of  the  United  States  will  enter 

3 


34      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

by  the  northern  gate,  Paso  del  Norte,  which 
has  recently  been  named  the  City  of  Juarez,  in 
honor  of  the  champion  of  republican  independ- 
ence, who  here  held  together  his  followers  while 
Maximilian  was  playing  emperor  in  the  City  of 
Mexico.  They  will  approach  this  entrance  to 
Mexico  by  either  the  Southern  Pacific  or  the 
Santa  Fe  Railway,  and  by  this  route  they  will 
have  the  advantage  of  entering  Mexico  at  a 
considerable  elevation  above  the  sea,  as  usually 
stated,  3,717  feet,  sufficient  to  make  fairly  sure 
an  agreeable  summer  and  fall  climate.  Travel- 
ers from  the  southern  States,  who  wish  to  visit 
Mexico  without  crossing  the  Gulf,  will  enter 
the  country  either  at  Eagle  Pass,  by  the  Mexi- 
can International  Railway,  or  at  Laredo,  over 
the  Mexican  National,  and  these  are  the  four 
gates  that  have  recently  been  opened  into  East- 
ern and  Northern  Mexico:  Tampico  on  the 
Gulf,  and  Laredo,  Eagle  Pass,  and  El  Paso  on 
the  Rio  Grande.  These  means  of  communica- 
tion between  Mexico  and  other  nations,  particu- 
larly between  Mexico  and  the  United  States, 
are  of  the  nature  of  a  number  of  agencies  whose 
efforts  are  directed  to  keeping  active  the  migra- 
tion of  persons  and  the  transportation  of 
goods. 

The  railways  have  not  only  opened  ways  into 
the  country,  but  are  in  themselves  the  moving 


Population.  35 

forces  of  an  industrial  revolution.  For  it  is  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  the  only  function  of  a 
railway  corporation,  having  once  set  its  road  in 
operation,  is  the  somewhat  passive  one  of  receiv- 
ing the  business  brought  to  it  without  its  initia- 
tive. Capital  in  large  masses  must  itself, 
through  its  agents,  make  the  conditions  of  its 
own  existence.  It  goes  with  its  products  to 
places  where  they  have  not  been  previously 
desired,  and  creates  a  demand  for  them.  When 
a  large  amount  of  capital  has  been  gathered 
and  organized  for  doing  a  specific  work,  the 
principle  of  the  life  of  that  capital  is  having  that 
work  to  do.  Suppose  that  in  the  time  of  active 
railway  construction  in  a  given  country  a  large 
plant  for  making  rails  has  come  into  existence. 
When  the  roads  which  it  was  built  to  supply 
are  completed,  the  original  occupation  of  this 
capital  appears  to  be  gone.  It  must  now  be 
transformed  at  a  loss,  or  lie  idle  at  a  loss,  or 
those  who  act  for  it  must  become  instrumental 
in  creating  a  demand  for  its  products  elsewhere. 
Thus  the  existence  of  such  plants  in  England, 
called  into  being  by  a  strong  domestic  demand 
for  rails,  becomes  a  force  in  extending  the  rail- 
way systems  of  other  countries.  The  managers 
may,  rather  than  allow  the  capital  to  lie  idle  or 
be  transformed,  agree  to  terms  which  make  the 
building  of  railways  profitable  in  Russia  or  the 


36      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

Argentine  Republic.  Thus  the  capital  organ- 
ized for  the  construction  of  rails  and  the  equip- 
ment of  railways  becomes  a  permanent  mission- 
ary of  railway  civilization.  The  same  thing  is 
true  of  the  enormous  amounts  of  capital  organ- 
ized for  the  construction  of  sewing  machines. 
If  certain  nations  are  supplied  so  that  there 
might  be  naturally  a  falling  off  in  the  demand, 
this  must  not  be;  otherwise  the  value  of  the 
plant  is  diminished;  hence  other  people  must 
be  made  to  demand  sewing  machines.  Thus 
the  missionary  force  of  the  capital  involved  in 
the  making  of  the  machines  has  carried  them 
to  the  four  quarters  of  the  earth.  They  may 
be  found  in  huts  in  Mexico,  where  the  dwelling 
itself  and  all  else  that  it  contains  is  not  of  half 
the  value  of  the  machine.  These  are  only 
instances  of  the  aggressive  force  of  large  masses 
of  organized  capital,  prompted  by  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation  in  the  organization. 

The  capital  that  has  gone  into  Mexican  rail- 
ways is  subject  to  the  same  law.  It  cannot  be 
passive;  it  must  be  a  reforming  agency.  The 
people  among  whom  the  roads  have  been  con- 
structed, whether  they  have  hitherto  felt  the 
need  of  them  or  not,  must  feel  the  need  of 
them.  It  is  not  a  question  of  greater  or  less 
happiness — the  railway  has  come  and  com- 
manded other  forms  of  life,  and  millions  of 


Population.  37 

capital  depend  on  this  command  being  obeyed, 
and  it  will  be  obeyed.  Men  may  not,  hitherto, 
have  wished  to  go  to  Mexico;  they  will  be 
made  to  wish  this  thing  especially.  The  ordi- 
nary man  or  the  poor  peon  who  has  never  left 
his  native  valley,  will  be  indifferent  at  first.  His 
mind  is  not  easily  inflamed.  There  will  gradu- 
ally be  awakened  in  him  a  desire  to  see  the 
great  city,  and  the  great  city  will  inspire  in 
him  the  wish  for  things  he  has  never  possessed. 
His  wants  will  be  increased;  he  will  feel  the 
necessity  of  work;  continuous  work  will  make 
him  a  man ;  and  the  railway  will  bring  to  him 
for  his  earnings  things  of  which  he  never 
dreamed.  What  nobody  wanted  at  first  will  at 
last  be  demanded  by  everybody;  and  organized 
capital  in  the  form  of  railways  will  have  suc- 
ceeded in  creating  demands  for  its  services  by 
the  compensation  for  which  it  may  be  main- 
tained and  increased  How  far  this  revolution 
has  been  actually  effected  here  remains  to  be 
seen. 


CHAPTER  III. 


AGRICULTURE. 

AMONG  the  more  general  economic  effects 
of  the  building  of  railways  in  Mexico  may  be 
observed  an  increasing  disposition  to  establish 
and  conduct  productive  enterprises  with  cor- 
porate capital.  A  conspicuous  weakness  of  the 
Spaniards  in  Spain,  and  of  their  descendants 
in  Spanish  America,  has  been  their  inability 
to  form  and  conduct  successfully  industrial 
and  commercial  corporations. 

The  extreme  individualist  who  thinks  a  dis- 
astrous step  was  taken  when  the  law  established 
the  conditions,  and  permitted  the  existence  of 
business  corporations,  will  naturally  find  a  na- 
tional virtue  in  the  disinclination  to  organize, 
or  to  carry  on  business  by  such  corporations. 
As  the  question  of  the  good  or  evil  of  com- 
mercial corporations  is  not  under  consideration, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  controvert  this  opinion, 
but  simply  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  one 
may  have  many  virtues  and  still  lack  practical 
efficiency.  If  we  may  form  a  judgment  from 
(38) 


Agriculture.  39 

the  actual  economic  facts  of  our  society,  the 
business  corporation  is  the  most  feasible  and 
most  effective  means  yet  extensively  practiced 
for  conducting  great  industrial  enterprises;  and 
the  nation  that  is  not  in  a  position  to  make 
use  of  this  means,  by  reason  of  its  virtues  or 
its  vices,  is  not  in  a  position  to  compete  suc- 
cessfully with  its  neighbors  who  are  not  thus 
hampered. 

In  both  Spain  and  Mexico,  therefore,  the 
large  undertakings,  which  require  more  capital 
than  one  man  is  likely  to  be  willing  to  invest 
in  a  single  venture,  have  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  foreigners  who  have  not  been  opposed  to 
the  corporate  form  of  business  management. 
In  Spain  French  corporations  own  and  manage 
most  of  the  railways,  while  English  corporations 
work  mines  and  control  other  important  inter- 
ests; and  in  Mexico  these  two  lines  of  business 
have  already  absorbed  large  sums  of  English 
and  American  capital  under  corporate  organiza- 
tion. The  reluctance  of  the  Mexicans  to  take 
advantage  of  this  form  of  organization  has  made 
the  way  here  comparatively  easy  for  foreign 
corporations. 

The  reason  of  this  reluctance  is  not  found  in 
lack  of  knowledge,  but  in  the  lack  of  confi- 
dence on  the  part  of  Mexicans  in  one  another. 
They  do  not  believe,  apparently,  that  their  fellow- 


40      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

citizens  are  as  honest  in  business  affairs  as  the 
members  of  other  nations.  As  an  evidence  of 
this  may  be  noticed  their  comparative  willing- 
ness to  enter  into  commercial  corporations  in 
case  a  foreigner  is  to  be  at  the  head  of  it.  In 
this  matter  they  appear  to  have  more  confidence 
in  a  foreigner,  whom  they  do  not  know,  than  in 
one  of  their  own  nation,  whom  they  do  know 
But  this  must  be  regarded  as  a  transitory  state 
of  things.  The  railway  corporations  are  mak- 
ing the  people  of  Mexico  familiar  with  this  form 
of  investment,  and  since  their  advent  there 
have  not  been  wanting  those  who  were  willing 
to  aid  in  organizing  corporations  for  other 
purposes. 

The  missionary  of  the  modern  industrial 
system  is  in  the  field ;  and  through  his  per- 
sonal solicitations,  and  through  the  force  of  the 
example  of  corporations  already  organized, 
Mexico  is  destined  to  be  carried  more  and  more 
completely  into  line  with  those  nations  that 
have  at  present  largely  supplanted  individual 
industry  by  corporate  industry.  By  the  inti- 
mate connection  which  has  been  established 
between  this  and  the  most  advanced  nations, 
the  forces  that  have  operated  to  produce  in 
them  an  industrial  revolution  are  working  now 
with  comparative  freedom,  and  are  bringing 
about  a  similar  revolution  in  Mexico. 


Agriculture.  4 1 

There  appears  to  be  no  doubt  that  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Mexican  nation  as  a  whole  has 
already  been  greatly  increased  in  value  by  the 
building  of  the  railways.  Rafael  Herrera,  an 
apparently  conservative  statistician,  in  setting 
forth  the  items  which  make  up  the  nation's 
property,  amounting  to  $2,200,000,000,  enters 
the  railways  at  $200,000,000.  In  the  same 
account  he  shows  that  the  private  property  in 
the  States  already  traversed  by  railways  has 
been  increased  $125,000,000.  But  a  greater 
indirect  result  may  be  reasonably  expected  in 
the  increase  which  will  come  as  a  consequence 
of  the  improvement  and  extension  of  cultivation 
that  the  better  means  of  communication  will 
induce.  The  improvement  of  cultivation  is 
brought  about  by  facility  in  obtaining  better 
agricultural  implements,  which  are  already 
being  largely  imported,  those  that  reach  the 
southern  part  of  the  country  coming  chiefly 
from  England  by  way  of  Vera  Cruz. 

It  is  noticeable  that  thus  far  the  improved 
implements  introduced,  particularly  along  the 
line  of  the  Mexican  Southern  Railway,  between 
Puebla  and  Oaxaca,  are  principally  for  harvest- 
ing, while  in  preparing  the  soil  and  planting 
there  is  still  a  vigorous  adherence  to  old  meth- 
ods. The  plow  of  the  old  style,  with  the  pres- 
tige of  several  thousand  years  of  use,  holds  its 


42       Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

place  against  all  intruders  with  remarkable 
resistance.  The  claim  that  it  is  better  suited  to 
the  conditions  of  the  Mexican  soil  and  climate 
than  any  other  is  supported  only  by  a  tradi- 
tional prejudice,  and  others  of  superior  fitness 
will  ultimately  be  introduced,  but  they  would 
come  the  sooner  if  the  makers  of  them  would 
consider  carefully  the  conditions  under  which 
they  must  be  used  and  adapt  them  as  far  as 
possible  to  these  conditions. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  so  abso- 
lutely sure  that  their  ways  are  the  only  proper 
ways  that  they  have  not  made  the  advances  in 
Spanish  American  trade  they  might  have  made 
if  they  had  been  more  disposed  to  adapt  them- 
selves and  their  work  to  the  conditions  and 
practices  of  other  nations.  It  may  be  true  that 
the  customs  of  a  nation,  although  supported  by 
the  traditions  of  many  generations,  are  not  the 
best  conceivable.  Still  it  may  not  be  advisable, 
if  we  wish  to  trade  with  that  nation,  to  make 
it  especially  conspicuous  in  the  beginning  that 
we  know  they  are  wrong  and  we  are  right,  and 
that  they  must  change  and  accept  our  practices 
immediately. 

If  the  Mexicans  wisji  a  plow  with  only  one 
handle,  it  is  not  worth  while  to  stand  on  their 
accepting  a  plow  with  two  handles  as  if  it  were 
a  high  moral  question.  Moses  gave  his  fol- 


Agricidture.  43 

lowers  not  the  best  laws  he  could  invent,  but 
the  best  they  were  prepared  to  receive;  so 
ordinary  business  sense  should  have  suggested 
to  Americans  to  give  the  Mexicans  not  the 
best  agricultural  implements  that  could  be  in- 
vented, but  the  best  tne  Mexicans  were  pre- 
pared to  receive.  In  the  course  of  their  attempts 
to  trade  with  Spanish  America,  the  merchants 
and  manufacturers  of  the  United  States  have 
not  always  lived  up  to  this  principle.  Year 
after  year  they  have  continued  to  pack  goods 
for  Bogota,  or  Quito,  or  a  town  in  Mexico  not 
reached  by  rail,  as  they  would  pack  them  to  be 
sent  from  New  York  to  Albany,  or  from  Chi- 
cago to  San  Francisco,  paying  no  attention  to 
the  fact  that  all  goods  sent  to  Spanish  America, 
even  where  there  are  railways,  may  be  required 
to  be  carried  a  longer  or  shorter  distance  on 
the  backs  of  men  or  mules,  and  that  where 
there  are  no  railways  this  is  the  almost  uni- 
versal method  of  transportation. 

In  loading  and  unloading  cars  the  ordinary 
truck  is  seldom  used;  the  goods  are  taken  up 
bodily  and  carried  from  the  station  to  the  car, 
or  from  the  car  to  the  station,  and  if  they  are 
to  be  taken  to  points  remote  from  the  station, 
they  are  usually  taken  on  mules.  The  necessi- 
ties of  the  case  demand,  therefore,  that  the 
package  should  never  exceed  150  pounds  in 


44      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

weight,  except  where  the  nature  of  the  wares 
shipped  renders  the  reduction  of  the  package 
to  this  size  impossible.  If,  instead  of  this 
arrangement,  a  package  of  400  or  500  pounds 
reaches  a  point  from  which  it  must  be  carried 
by  men  or  animals,  it  will  have  to  be  broken 
into  several  bundles  before  it  can  be  trans- 
ported to  its  destination;  and  it  requires  only 
a  little  observation  to  be  able  to  appreciate 
what  is  likely  to  happen  to  packages  of  goods 
broken  in  transit  in  any  Spanish  American 
country. 

One  result  we  may  count  on  with  much 
certainty:  the  next  time  the  consignee  wishes 
goods  he  will  send  his  orders  to  another  house, 
and  probably  to  another  country.  In  the  mat- 
ter of  adapting  themselves  to  the  peculiar  con- 
ditions of  Mexico  and  of  Spanish  America  in 
general,  the  traders  of  the  United  States  appear 
to  have  shown  less  quickness  and  sagacity  than 
the  members  of  certain  other  nations ;  but,  hav- 
ing found  out  that  there  is  something  to  be 
learned,  they  are  now  learning  it  rapidly. 

On  the  extension  of  cultivation  the  direct 
influence  of  the  railways  is  clearly  discernible- 
Persons  who  had  lived  in  that  connection  with 
the  rest  of  the  world  which  proximity  to  the 
railways  gave  them,  were  naturally  reluctant  to 
involve  themselves  in  agricultural  enterprises 


Agriculture.  45 

far  away  from  the  means  of  rapid  transporta- 
tion. But  it  is  by  such  persons  that  the  recent 
extraordinary  demand  for  agricultural  lands 
has  been  made;  and  this  demand  has  been 
largely  induced  by  the  construction  of  railways 
that  in  the  last  few  years  have  brought  large 
tracts  of  productive  land  into  easy  communica- 
tion with  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Conspicuous  among  the  railways  that  have 
of  late  opened  new  fields  for  agricultural  enter- 
prise are  the  Mexican  Southern,  the  Inter- 
oceanic  and  the  Guadalajara  branch  of  the 
Mexican  Central.  The  Mexican  Southern  is  one 
of  the  latest  ventures  in  railway  building  in 
Mexico.  Maintaining  a  general  direction  toward 
the  southeast,  it  runs  through  a  rich  agricul- 
tural region  between  Puebla  and  Tehuacan,  then 
descends  into  an  interior  valley,  which  is  only 
about  1,500  feet  above  the  sea.  Here  the 
cocoanut  flourishes,  and  the  mango  and  the 
banana  thrive  with  apparently  little  aid  from 
cultivation.  As  we  are  here  under  about  the 
seventeenth  degree  of  latitude,  it  is  somewhat 
warm,  as  might  be  expected,  but  it  is  not 
oppressive.  Even  in  midsummer  it  is  not  dis- 
agreeable. With  the  surrounding  mountains, 
which  are  completely  clothed  with  foliage,  send- 
ing down  abundant  streams  of  water,  there  are 
on  all  sides  the  suggestions  of  a  tropical  par- 


46      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

adise.  From  this  region  the  road  leads  up 
through  a  deep  and  crooked  canyon  to  the 
summit  of  a  ridge  7,000  feet  high,  which 
is  here  the  watershed  between  the  Gulf  and 
the  Pacific.  At  this  point  of  advantage  a 
magnificent  view  toward  the  south  is  spread 
out  before  us,  over  hills  that  are  green  with 
the  freshness  of  spring,  over  valleys  of  waving 
corn,  and  on  toward  the  ocean.  By  the  build- 
ing of  this  railway  the  rich  valley  of  Oaxaca 
is  brought  within  an  easy  day's  journey  of 
Puebla,  whereas  formerly  it  was  reached  only 
after  a  week's  journey  over  a  hard  road. 

The  Guadalajara  branch  of  the  Mexican 
Central  has  not  only  brought  railway  com- 
munication to  the  third  city  of  the  republic, 
but  has  also  made  readily  accessible  an  exten- 
sive and  productive  agricultural  region.  It  is 
in  this  part  of  the  country  that  the  oranges 
are  produced  which  have  lately  begun  to  be 
shipped  to  the  United  States.  The  time  of  ship- 
ment is,  however,  such  that  should  the  amount 
greatly  increase  it  would  not  be  likely  to  inter- 
fere with  the  market  of  the  California  crop. 
But  at  present  it  is  not  the  cultivation  of  the 
orange  but  of  coffee  that  is  attracting  special 
attention.  The  possibilities  of  the  western  slope 
with  reference  to  this  product  are  but  imper- 
fectly determined,  while  on  the  eastern  slope 


Agriculture.  47 

much  progress  has  already  been  made.  The 
completion  of  the  Interoceanic  Railway  to  Vera 
Cruz,  through  Jalapa,  has  made  more  acces- 
sible rich  coffee  lands  that  are  already  culti- 
vated and  others  that  will  hereafter  be  brought 
under  cultivation. 

Among  the  reasons  for  supposing  that  lands 
not  at  present  cultivated  will  be  found  suitable 
for  raising  coffee  and  brought  under  cultivation 
is  the  extraordinary  profit  which  the  production 
of  coffee  offers.  The  cost  of  its  production  in 
Mexico  in  general  is  between  eight  and  ten 
cents  a  pound  in  Mexican  money,  and  it  sells 
at  from  twenty-five  to  thirty-two  cents.  An- 
other consideration  pointing  to  the  same  result 
is  the  probable  diminution  of  the  production 
in  Brazil. 

Hitherto  Brazil  has  produced  about  one-half 
of  the  coffee  that  has  been  consumed  in  the 
world.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  any  serious 
interference  with  the  conditions  of  production 
in  that  country  would  open  extraordinary  op- 
portunities for  other  countries.  Probably  the 
most  violent  shock  which  the  economic  inter- 
ests of  Brazil  have  suffered  in  this  century  has 
been  caused  by  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves, 
of  whom  about  284,000  were  engaged  in  the 
cultivation  of  coffee,  working  from  twelve  to 
fourteen  hours  a  day.  As  long  as  those  con- 


48       Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico, 

ditions  of  labor  continued  which  existed  prior 
to  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  Brazil  was 
naturally  not  regarded  by  the  laborers  of  other 
countries  as  a  favorable  place  to  which  to 
emigrate. 

Thus,  without  European  colonists  seeking 
independent  farms,  the  ownership  of  land  drifted 
more  and  more  toward  large  possessions. 
When  the  slaves  were  emancipated,  their  first 
disposition  was  to  avoid  work  and  to  fall  into 
indolence  and  general  worthlessness,  and  the 
large  estates  consequently  found  themselves 
with  a  diminished  force  of  laborers.  The  gov- 
ernment undertook  to  remedy  the  evil  by  intro- 
ducing Chinese.  One  of  the  Ministers,  in  1879, 
advocating  this  measure,  said  that  "the  govern- 
ment, having  little  hope  of  saving  the  cultiva- 
tion of  coffee  by  means  of  European  colonists, 
directed  its  view  toward  China,  with  the  design 
of  introducing  from  that  source  agricultural 
laborers  who  might  replace  the  slaves."  He 
did  not  regard  the  introduction  of  the  Chinese 
as  a  part  of  a  process  of  colonization,  but  only 
as  furnishing  an  addition  to  the  labor  force;  and 
the  government,  as  he  confessed,  turned  its 
attention  to  this  source  "because  it  was  con- 
vinced that  there  was  no  other  available." 

The  plan  was  carried  out  against  great  opposi- 
tion, but  the  Chinese  introduced  remained  only 


Agriculture.  49 

a  short  time  on  the  coffee  plantations;  they 
then  fled  to  the  cities,  where  they  became 
laundrymen  and  were  engaged  as  domestic 
servants. 

One  phase  of  this  embarrassing  state  of  things 
was  an  enormous  increase  of  mortgages  on 
the  coffee  plantations.  By  1883  the  1,039 
plantations  in  the  region  about  Rio  and  Santos 
had  become  burdened  with  claims  amounting  to 
$24,707,015.  This  creation  of  large  permanent 
obligations,  for  the  payment  of  which  the  estates 
were  pledged,  stands  in  strong  contrast  with 
the  earlier  practice,  under  which  comparatively 
small  sums  were  borrowed  for  short  periods  on 
simple  promises  to  pay,  and  were  promptly  paid 
with  a  part  of  the  proceeds  of  the  first  succeed- 
ing crop.  The  new  condition  of  things  indicates 
such  a  decline  in  production  that  the  borrowers 
have  found  themselves  unable  to  liquidate  their 
obligations,  and  are  forced  to  carry  them  as 
permanent  burdens.  And  in  later  years  the 
affairs  of  the  planters  of  Brazil  have  shown  no 
especially  marked  improvement.  At  present 
twenty  per  cent,  of  the  plantations  are  practi- 
cally free  from  debt,  thirty  per  cent,  in  case 
of  liquidation,  would  scarcely  be  able  to  meet 
their  obligations,  and  fifty  per  cent,  are  in  a 
hopeless  condition. 

The  recent  rise  in  the  price  of  coffee  is  partly 
4 


50      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

due  to  the  desperate  situation  of  the  Brazilian 
planters,  and  partly  to  the  very  marked  in- 
crease of  consumption  in  the  United  States  and 
the  European  nations.  The  increase  in  annual 
consumption  in  these  nations  from  1873  to 
1882  was  257,347,273  pounds,  which  is  to  say 
that  Italy,  France,  Russia,  Norway,  Sweden, 
Switzerland,  Austro-Hungary,  Germany,  Portu- 
gal, Belgium,  England,  Holland,  Denmark,  and 
the  United  States  consumed  in  1882  upwards 
of  250,000,000  pounds  of  coffee  more  than 
in  1873.  The  next  decade  witnessed  an  even 
greater  increase  in  consumption.  The  con- 
sumption of  1892  exceeded  that  of  1883  by 
400,000,000  pounds;  and  there  is  reason  to  ex- 
pect, with  the  prospect  of  Russia  and  Spain 
becoming  coffee-drinking  nations,  that  the  in- 
crease in  consumption  in  the  future  will  be 
even  greater  than  in  the  past. 

These  facts  indicate  that  the  present  extraor- 
dinary demands  for  coffee  lands  in  Mexico 
have  a  certain  reasonable  foundation.  Even 
should  Brazil  escape  from  her  difficulties  with 
respect  to  labor,  the  greatly  increased  con- 
sumption of  coffee  is  likely  to  keep  its  price 
near  its  present  figure  for  at  least  a  number  of 
years.  As  the  ills  of  Brazil  are  not  merely 
economic  but  also  political,  the  hopes  of  a 
speedy  recovery  are  not  strong.  In  the  con- 


Agriculture.  5 1 

test  for  some  share  of  the  gains  of  the  existing 
market,  Mexico  has  important  advantages.  She 
has  an  extensive  territory  adapted  in  soil  and 
climate  to  this  form  of  cultivation,  and,  in  the 
Indians,  an  excellent  body  of  laborers,  perhaps 
better  fitted  for  this  kind  of  work  than  the  or- 
dinary laborers  of  any  other  country. 

A  reference  to  the  statistics  of  the  exporta- 
tion of  coffee  from  Mexico  shows  that  what- 
ever may  have  been  the  price  the  amount 
exported  has  continued  to  increase.  From  an 
examination  of  the  details  of  these  statistics 
we  get  the  following  general  results,  showing 
the  number  of  pounds  of  coffee  exported  from 
Mexico  in  each  of  the  years  1873,  1883,  1889, 
and  1890: — 

Pounds. 

In  1873 1432,100 

In  1883 18,598,419 

In  1889 21,755,956 

In  1890 27,797,056 

From  this  statement  we  see  that  the  annual 
exportation  of  1873  was  1,432,100  pounds.  In 
the  course  of  ten  years  the  amount  of  the  an- 
nual exportation  had  increased  to  such  an  extent 
that  in  1883  it  was  17,166,319  pounds  more 
than  in  1873.  In  1889  the  exportations  were 
3,157,537  pounds  more  than  six  years  earlier, 
in  1883;  and  in  1890  they  were  6,041,100 
pounds  more  than  during  the  previous  year. 


52      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

If,  in  want  of  the  exact  figures  of  the  most  re- 
cent years,  we  assume  that  the  annual  increase 
of  exportations  since  1890  has  been  what  it 
was  during  the  year  1889-1890,  we  shall  reach 
the  provisional  statement  that  the  exportations 
for  the  year  ending  in  1895  will  amount  to 
58,012,556  pounds. 

The  cultivation  of  coffee  and  other  export- 
able products  is  favored  at  this  time,  in  order 
that  they  may  be  sent  abroad  to  liquidate  for- 
eign obligations,  and  thus  prevent  the  exporta- 
tion of  silver  at  its  present  low  price.  This 
appears  to  be  a  kind  of  generally  accepted  pol- 
icy. If  this  design  of  exporting  agricultural 
products  and  manufactured  commodities  to  pay 
for  imports  and  meet  the  interest  on  foreign 
loans  is  carried  out,  the  result  will  necessarily 
be  a  state  of  things  apparently  not  foreseen 
here,  at  least  not  brought  forward  in  the  op- 
timistic views  set  forth.  Hitherto  silver  has 
been  exported  because  it  has  been  the  cheap- 
est thing  Mexico  could  produce  which  was 
largely  demanded  by  foreigners;  and  thus,  in 
spite  oi  the  enormous  production,  it  has  not 
accumulated  in  the  country  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  affect  the  currency  seriously  by  causing 
an  undue  inflation.  Hence,  considering  only 
the  immediate  past  and  only  one  phase  of  the 
economic  forces  in  operation  at  present,  there 


Agriculture.  53 

has  come  into  existence  in  Mexico  a  feeling  of 
remarkable  hopefulness  with  respect  to  the  fu- 
ture, which  does  not  appear  to  be  entirely 
justified.  For,  in  financial  affairs,  the  immedi- 
ate effects  of  a  policy  are  not  adequate  grounds 
of  judgments  respecting  the  merits  of  that 
policy. 

The  immediate  effect  of  any  form  of  inflated 
currency  is  to  stimulate  economic  activity. 
Whether  the  sudden  overabundance  of  money 
is  caused,  as  in  Germany  after  the  war  with 
France,  by  the  importation  of  a  large  amount  of 
gold,  or  by  importing  or  mining  and  coining  a 
large  amount  of  silver,  or  by  issuing  an  inor- 
dinate amount  of  paper  money,  the  immediate 
economic  effects  are  essentially  the  same, — a 
feverish  activity,  in  which  enterprises  of  vari- 
ous kinds  are  set  on  foot,  through  which  it  is 
hoped  to  get  some  part  of  the  gains  that  ap- 
pear unusually  large  and  easily  earned.  This 
movement  goes  naturally  to  the  point  where 
the  extraordinary  amounts  of  capital  invested 
fail  to  bring  the  expected  returns;  and  there 
follow  losses  from  disappointing  ventures,  con- 
sequent failures  to  meet  obligations,  an  inev- 
itable subsequent  shrinkage,  and  the  other 
characteristic  and  familiar  features  of  a  com- 
mercial crisis. 

Any  artificial  stimulus  of  production,  if  car- 


54      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

ried  far  enough  and  rapidly  enough,  whether 
caused  by  an  increase  in  the  amount  of  the 
currency,  or  by  stopping  the  preexisting  cur- 
rents of  imports,  will  lead  to  the  same  result. 
The  decline  in  the  price  of  silver  has  operated 
in  both  of  these  ways  in  Mexico.  The  infla- 
tion, however,  has  not  been  very  great.  It  has 
come  only  in  proportion  to  the  unusual  amount 
of  silver  that  has  been  retained  in  the  country 
by  reason  of  the  substitution,  in  the  list  of  ex- ' 
ports,  of  other  commodities  for  a  certain  part 
of  the  silver  usually  exported.  In  the  other 
way  the  fall  of  silver  has  been  much  more  in- 
fluential. By  making  it  impossible  to  get  from 
foreign  countries  more  than  about  one-half  as 
much  for  a  dollar  as  formerly,  it  has  practically 
doubled  the  protective  force  of  the  legal  cus- 
toms duties. 

By  this  means  it  is  expected  that  the  im- 
ports will  be  greatly  lessened;  and  by  the  stim- 
ulated production  of  coffee  and  other  commod- 
ities it  is  hoped  that  the  foreign  obligations 
thus  lessened  will  be  met.  This  avowed  de- 
sign leaves  the  silver  in  the  country.  If, 
then,  the  mines  continue  to  be  worked,  and  the 
mints  continue  to  coin  the  silver,  the  inevitable 
result  will  be  a  rapid  increase  in  the  amount 
of  money  in  the  country.  And  there  is  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  both  of  these  things 


Agrieultu  re.  5  5 

will  continue  to  happen.  A  rapid  rise  of  prices 
will,  therefore,  surely  follow,  unless  the  in- 
creased business,  by  its  demands  for  a  more 
abundant  circulating  medium,  will  absorb  the 
great  stream  of  coin  flowing  from  the  mints. 
And  this  is  not  to  be  anticipated,  for  several 
reasons.  In  the  first  place,  because  of  the  enor- 
mous amount  of  silver  produced  and  passed 
from  the  mines  through  the  mints.  This 
amount  for  the  sixty-seven  years  from  1822  to 
1889  was  $3,371,647,269,  exceeding  the  total 
present  value  of  all  the  property  of  Mexico, 
public  and  private,  set  down  at  $2,200,000,000, 
by  more  than  one-half  of  this  sum,  making  an 
average  yearly  coinage  of  over  fifty  millions 
of  dollars. 

If,  in  spite  of  revolutions  and  general  inse- 
curity of  property,  there  have  been  coined  over 
fifty  millions  a  year  for  the  last  sixty-seven 
years,  we  have  reason  to  expect  a  larger  rather 
than  a  smaller  sum  in  the  coming  years.  In 
the  second  place,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that 
the  increasing  business  will  absorb  the  annual 
product  of  the  mints,  because  with  the  placing 
of  the  business  of  Mexico  on  the  basis  of  mod- 
ern commercial  nations,  credit  will  be  much 
more  extensively  used  than  formerly,  and  this 
condition  of  things  is  already  beginning  to  be 
manifest.  In  the  third  place,  it  will  not  hap- 


56      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

pen,  because  of  the  decline  in  the  amounts 
hoarded  on  account  of  greater  public  security 
and  the  introduction  of  new  methods  of  busi- 
ness. 

It  thus  appears  that  the  substitution  of  cof- 
fee or  other  products  for  silver  in  the  foreign 
exchanges  will  leave  the  silver  in  the  country, 
and  inevitably  bring  about  a  local  depreciation 
of  it.  This  will  result  in  a  general  increase  of 
prices,  diminishing  somewhat,  particularly  as  it 
affects  wages,  the  extraordinary  advantages 
which  those  who  produce  in  Mexico  for  a  for- 
eign market  now  have.  The  advantages  will, 
however,  disappear  slowly,  for  labor  follows  the 
upward  movement  in  the  prices  of  other 
things.  Here  the  wages  of  ordinary  labor  are 
especially  slow  in  rising,  owing  in  part  to  the 
fact  that  the  Indians  who  perform  this  work 
are  to  such  an  extent  a  class  apart  that  they 
form  almost  a  separate  nation,  with  respect 
to  the  rest  of  the  nation  practically  a  non- 
competing  half.  Consequently  the  producers 
who  employ  this  labor,  as  do  the  coffee  plant- 
ers almost  entirely,  will  retain  the  existing  ad- 
vantages by  so  much  the  longer. 

The  part  of  Mexico  reached  by  the  western 
branch  of  the  Mexican  Central  Railway,  which 
at  present  ends  at  Guadalajara,  is  one  of  the 
most  fruitful  provinces  of  the  country.  In  a 


Agriculture.  57 

book  called  a  "Geographical  Description  of  the 
Indies,"  which  was  written  more  than  three 
hundred  years  ago,  and  which  has  lain  in  man- 
uscript until  it  was  printed  last  year,  the  au- 
thor makes  the  following  reference  to  this 
region  :  "The  temperature  of  this  province," 
so  runs  the  description,  "is  rather  cold  than 
hot,  and  is  thus  a  healthful  region.  It  rains 
and  thunders  much  in  the  months  of  June  and 
July,  and  there  are  severe  earthquakes.  The 
soil  of  the  province  is  sandy,  and  thus  it  is 
never  muddy.  There  are  many  springs  and 
rivers,  and  the  land  is  rather  uneven  than 
level;  and  there  are  also  great  mountains  of  a 
porous  rock,  not  suitable  for  the  purposes  of 
building;  there  is  much  limestone  but  no  gyp- 
sum. There  are  in  the  province,  as  in  other 
parts  of  the  kingdom,  mines  of  silver,  although 
all  poor;  there  is  much  pasture  and  meadow 
land,  some  of  which  is  irrigated,  and  there  is 
a  disposition  to  extend  this;  and  thus  it  is  very 
fertile  and  productive  of  corn  and  wheat  and 
all  the  grains  and  vegetables  of  Spain."  Since 
this  brief  description  was  written,  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty  years  ago,  there  has  been 
time  to  write  a  better  one,  but  it  has  not  yet 
appeared. 

In  the  beginning  the  growth  of  Guadalajara, 
as  it  was  the  center  of  an  agricultural  region, 


58      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

was  necessarily  slow.  But  Zacatecas,  founded 
later  in  a  rich  mining  district,  grew  much  more 
rapidly.  In  the  course  of  time,  however,  Gua- 
dalajara became  a  political  capital.  It  was 
the  seat  of  the  judicial  and  administrative  body 
known  as  the  Audiencia,  and  thus  the  center 
of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  New  Galicia.  This 
advantage  it  has  retained;  since  the  establish- 
ment of  the  republic  of  Mexico  it  has  been 
the  capital  of  the  State  of  Jalisco.  But  some- 
thing more  than  politics  has  been  necessary  to 
make  it  the  rich  and  prosperous  city  of  to-day. 
The  source  of  this  wealth  is  the  fertile  land  of 
the  adjacent  region,  which  will  produce  in 
abundance  almost  everything  that  has  ever 
been  cultivated.  Hitherto  the  amount  of  the 
production  of  this  region  has  been  limited 
especially  by  two  things:  By  the  difficulties  of 
reaching  a  market,  and  by  the  possession  of 
land  in  very  large  tracts  free  from  taxation. 

Before  the  railway  penetrated  this  part  of 
Mexico,  certain  things  which  might  be  produced 
here  in  practically  unlimited  quantities  were 
cultivated  only  to  a  very  limited  extent  The 
orange  is  perhaps  a  good  illustration  of  this. 
The  considerable  and  increasing  shipments  that 
have  already  been  made  in  the  last  few  years 
furnish  no  indication  of  the  capacity  of  the 
province  in  this  respect;  they  are  scarcely  more 


Agriculture.  59 

than  the  surplus  which  was  wasted  under  pre- 
vious conditions.  As  long  as  it  was  very  dif- 
ficult or  impossible  to  ship  the  portion  of  any 
product  that  was  not  demanded  for  local  con- 
sumption, there  was  certainly  no  inducement 
to  increase  the  amount  of  the  production.  The 
railway  has  relieved  this  condition  of  things  to 
a  certain  extent;  but  there  are  still  needed  in 
this  part  of  the  country  branches  of  the  exist- 
ing railway  from  twenty-five  to  a  hundred 
miles  in  length  to  bring  better  means  of  trans- 
portation to  rich  and  extensive  lands  which  at 
present  are  only  imperfectly  cultivated. 

The  other  hindrance  to  the  agricultural  devel- 
opment of  this  most  favored  region  is  the  ex- 
istence of  very  large  estates,  the  land  of  which 
is  free  from  taxation,  only  the  products  bearing 
a  tax.  This  hindrance  exists  not  merely  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Guadalajara,  but  throughout 
the  territory  of  the  republic.  Although  there 
may  be  large  estates  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, yet  the  magnitude  of  the  evil  in  different 
places  varies  with  the  different  kinds  of  culti- 
vation. The  highlands  between  Puebla  and 
the  City  of  Mexico,  which  appear  to  be  espe- 
cially useful,  and  perhaps  only  useful,  for  the 
production  of  pulque,  may  be  most  advanta- 
geously managed  in  large  tracts.  In  the  profits 
of  the  business  there  is  a  sufficient  incentive  to 


60      Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

keep  the  territory  fully  planted.  But  this  is 
not  true  in  some  other  kinds  of  production, 
where  the  expenses  are  nearer  the  gross  re- 
turns, particularly  where  the  land  is  owned  not 
for  the  sake  of  the  maximum  revenue,  but  as 
a  family  endowment  that  may  be  held  from 
generation  to  generation  as  a  means  of  assur- 
ing to  the  family  its  present  economic  and 
social  standing. 

One  observing  these  vast  estates,  which  em- 
brace from  twenty-five  to  five  hundred  square 
miles,  large  parts  of  which  may  be  neither 
increasing  in  value  nor  bringing  an  annual  re- 
turn from  cultivation,  naturally  thinks  of  the 
advisability  of  selling  them  or  parts  of  them, 
and  so  investing  the  money  that  it  may  bring 
an  income.  He  may,  perhaps,  expect  to  see 
this  result  speedily  brought  about;  for  he  sees 
in  this  course  abundant  gains  for  the  owner 
instead  of  the  comparatively  meager  gains  of 
the  present,  and  he  relies  upon  what  he  calls 
the  economic  forces  to  effect  this  change.  If 
he  has  faithfully  accepted  the  one-sided  politi- 
cal economy  sometimes  taught,  he  will  con- 
clude this  must  be,  since  there  is  a  great  pecun- 
iary advantage  in  this  line  of  action.  But  it 
is  the  rare  man  who  moves  in  the  line  traced 
by  the  earlier  economists,  and  it  is  particularly 
not  the  mediaeval  man  who  survives  in  the 
person  of  the  great  landholder  of  Mexico. 


Agriculture.  6 1 

A  student  of  the  conditions  of  rural  Europe 
in  the  Middle  Ages  would  find  great  enlight- 
enment in  a  few  weeks  on  one  of  these  great 
estates.  In  the  residence  of  the  proprietor  he 
would  find  himself  walled  about  in  a  manner 
to  suggest  the  stronghold  of  the  mediaeval 
baron.  The  extent  of  the  estate  he  would  find 
not  less  than  that  of  the  barony,  and  the  au- 
thority of  the  later  lord  equal  to  that  of  the 
earlier.  He  would  find  the  peons,  who  live  on 
the  estate,  as  dependent  as  were  the  serfs,  and 
their  methods  of  working  quite  as  crude.  Con- 
temporary illustrations  show  the  mediaeval  serf 
working  with  a  rude  hoe,  but  the  Mexican  serf 
in  completing  the  work  of  cultivating  the  corn 
after  the  plow,  often  uses  only  his  hands.  The 
desire  of  the  modern  feudal  lord,  moreover,  to 
preserve  his  estate  entire  for  his  descendants, 
regardless  of  economic  considerations,  appears 
to  be  as  strong  as  it  was  in  his  European 
predecessor;  and  it  is  this  which  stands  as  the 
chief  hindrance  to  a  speedy  revolutionizing  of 
rural  life  and  cultivation  in  the  especially  fertile 
parts  of  the  country,  such  as  the  region  about 
Guadalajara,  or  on  the  eastern  slope  between 
Tampico  and  San  Luis  Potosi. 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that,  while  the  building 
of  the  railway  sets  aside  one  of  the  hindrances 
to  more  extensive  cultivation,  the  other  re- 


62       Railway  Revohition  in  Mexico. 

mains.  The  owners  of  the  large  estates  are 
several  degrees  removed  from  the  "economic 
man"  of  the  economists.  They  do  not  proceed 
in  the  line  of  the  greatest  pecuniary  gains. 

The  satisfaction  of  mere  possession,  and  of 
the  thought  that  the  later  generations  of  their 
families  are  assured  independence,  counterbal- 
ances all  other  considerations.  If  they  produce 
enough  for  their  own  wants  and  the  mainte- 
nance of  their  numerous  servants  and  other 
dependents,  they  find  no  inconvenience  in  the 
fact  that  a  large  part  of  their  lands  are  not 
under  cultivation,  and  produce  little  or  nothing. 
If  they  produce  nothing,  they  are  not  taxed. 
Taxes  come  only  with  production.  The  ob- 
stacles to  more  extensive  and  complete  culti- 
vation involved  in  this  system  may  not  be 
removed  by  showing  that  superior  economic 
gains  would  be  had  in  case  of  their  removal, 
for,  as  suggested,  the  proprietors  are  not 
amenable  to  the  consideration  of  maximum 
gains. 

If  Mexico's  rich  lands  are  to  be  fully  util- 
ized and  abundance  to  reign,  her  mediaeval 
system  of  landholding  and  agriculture  must  be 
modernized;  the  great  estates  must  be  divided, 
and  the  prize  of  independence  held  out  to  the 
agricultural  laborers.  This  is  not  a  statement 
based  on  mere  speculation;  it  is  emphasized 


Agriculture.  63 

and  confirmed  by  the  affairs  of  every  nation 
that  has  achieved  for  the  bulk  of  its  citizens 
a  noteworthy  degree  of  prosperity.  And  the 
means  are  not  in  the  hands  of  private  persons 
or  railway  corporations,  but  in  the  hands  of 
the  government,  and  should  be  applied  in  the 
form  of  a  general  tax  on  land,  sufficiently 
heavy  to  make  it  extremely  inconvenient  for 
one  to  hold  thousands  of  acres  of  fertile  land 
without  cultivating  it  or  putting  it  to  some 
productive  use.  But  here  is  the  rub;  the  gov- 
ernment is  an  oligarchy,  topped  by  a  despot, 
and  the  members  of  the  oligarchy,  or  the  class 
to  which  they  belong,  are  the  great  landholders, 
and  naturally  have  no  desire  to  impose  a  bur- 
den on  land  which  would  make  the  holding  of 
their  estates  in  their  present  form  practically 
impossible.  Yet  this  measure  properly  carried 
out  would  enable  the  government  to  relin- 
quish some  of  its  petty  imposts  on  manufac- 
turing and  trading,  which  at  present  discourage 
business  without  bringing  to  the  state  large 
returns.  It  would,  moreover,  tend  to  throw 
certain  lands  into  the  market  in  those  parts  of 
Mexico  which  are  most  desirable  as  places  of 
residence. 

But  there  are  certain  forces  at  work,  which, 
even  without  a  tax,  will  tend  to  bring  Mexican 
lands  into  the  market  and  cause  them  to  be 


64        Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

divided.  One  of  these  is  the  railway  compa- 
nies, who  are  directly  interested  in  having  this 
end  reached.  They  are  interested  in  it  be- 
cause it  will  increase  their  local  traffic  in  both 
freight  and  passengers;  and  most  of  these  com- 
panies have  had  already  sufficient  experience  in 
their  business  to  be  able  to  see  clearly  that  they 
must  rely  for  the  support  of  their  undertakings 
on  the  local  instead  of  the  "through"  traffic. 
The  railway  company  in  Mexico,  that  bases  its 
expectation  of  a  degree  of  success  superior  to 
that  of  the  other  companies,  on  the  fact  of  hav- 
ing the  shortest  line  between  New  York  or 
Chicago  and  the  City  of  Mexico,  is  bound  to 
be  fooled,  unless  it  has  equal  or  greater  ad- 
vantages than  the  other  companies  in  local 
business. 

These  facts  clearly  seen  are  leading  some  of 
the  companies  to  put  forth  extraordinary  ef- 
forts to  secure  such  control  of  lands  adjacent 
to  railways  that  they  may  sell  them  in  tracts 
of  the  sizes  desired  by  immigrants.  The  rail- 
way companies  or  other  combinations  of  cap- 
italists in  which  the  railway  companies  are  in- 
terested, are  the  only  persons  who  are  in  a 
position  to  make  the  original  purchase;  for  in 
some  places,  if  the  sale  is  made  at  all,  the 
whole  of  an  estate  of  say  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  acres  must  be  sold.  The  rail- 


Agriculture.  65 

way  company  or  a  syndicate  must  be  the  mid- 
dleman, and  it  may  be  expected  to  make  a  profit 
on  the  portions  sold.  This  will  be  necessary 
to  cover  the  loss  of  holding  comparatively 
worthless  tracts  that  remain  unsold,  or  if  sold 
bring  not  more  than  the  original  purchase 
price.  If  a  railway  company  thus  becomes  a 
trader  in  real  estate,  it  will  expect  a  permanent 
source  of  gain  in  an  increase  of  its  regular  bus- 
iness. 

A  syndicate  has  nearly  completed  its  negotia- 
tions for  the  purchase  of  a  large  estate  on  the 
line  of  the  Tampico  branch  of  the  Mexican 
Central  Railway,  which  embraces  a  magnificent 
valley  at  the  bottom  of  the  first  great  descent 
from  the  table-land.  It  ought  to  be  attractive 
to  settlers,  if  soil  and  climate  and  scenery  can 
make  any  place  attractive;  and  if  things  culti- 
vated will  grow  as  things  uncultivated  now 
grow,  it  ought  to  be  easy  there  to  gather  the 
means  of  a  comfortable  existence.  The  region 
farther  down  towards  the  Gulf,  through  which 
one  passes  on  the  journey  from  San  Luis  Potosi 
to  Tampico,  comes  nearer  to  one's  ideal  01 
tropical  scenery  than  that  presented  almost 
anywhere  else  in  Mexico — the  forests  apparently 
impassable  for  their  abundance  of  tangled  vines, 
the  brilliant  flowers  scattered  here  and  there  in 
the  dark  green  foliage,  and  the  wide  stretches 
5 


66        Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

of  country  in  which  the  tall  and  dignified  palms 
are  the  conspicuous  objects. 

The  part  of  Mexico  tributary  to  Guadalajara 
has  not  only  almost  unlimited  agricultural  re- 
sources, but  also  excellent  opportunities  for 
manufacturing.  A  few  miles  from  the  city 
there  is  a  fall  in  the  largest  river  of  the  country, 
which  some  persons,  by  a  powerful  effort  of 
the  imagination,  like  to  call  the  Niagara  of 
Mexico.  It  has  been  utilized  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, but  only  a  very  small  fraction  of  its  power 
developed.  It  runs  certain  mills  in  the  neigh- 
borhood; it  furnishes  the  electric  light  of  Gua- 
dalajara; and  there  appears  to  be  no  reason  why 
the  whole  system  of  street  cars  might  not  be 
driven  by  power  from  the  same  source,  and 
still  leave  enough  for  many  years  of  industrial 
growth. 

The  recent  progress  in  manufacturing  cotton 
goods  in  Mexico  has  raised  inquiries  concerning 
the  raw  material  and  the  resources  of  the  coun- 
try respecting  this  form  of  agricultural  produce, 
and  a  reasonable  conclusion  is  that  the  records 
give  us  no  information  of  a  period  when  cotton 
was  not  cultivated  here.  The  Spaniards  found 
it  under  cultivation  on  their  arrival,  and  among 
the  presents  which  Cortes  received  shortly  after 
he  had  destroyed  the  city  of  Cholula  were  1 ,500 
suits  of  cotton  clothing.  They  found  it  not 


Agriculture.  67 

merely  in  a  few  places,  but  throughout  almost 
all  the  territory  which  at  present  belongs  to 
the  republic,  and  it  was  even  in  use  by  the 
Indians  of  California.  Articles  of  cotton  figure 
in  nearly  all  the  presents  received  by  Cortes 
from  the  natives,  and  they  were  found  among 
the  first  presents  sent  by  him  to  the  king  of 
Spain.  So  numerous  are  the  evidences  of  the 
use  of  cotton  by  the  Indians  that  it  has  been 
affirmed  that  it  was  more  extensively  cultivated 
before  the  conquest  than  during  the  period  of 
Spanish  domination.  In  the  latter  period  the 
Indians,  who  had  previously  worked  independ- 
ently, were  reduced  to  slavery  in  the  service 
of  the  invaders,  and  called  away  from  their 
customary  occupations  and  compelled  to  follow 
the  directions  of  their  masters,  under  whom 
agricultural  interests  were  neglected  and  the 
cultivation  of  cotton  declined.  The  last  cen- 
tury of  Spanish  rule  witnessed,  however,  an 
improvement  in  agriculture  and  in  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Indians,  not  so  much  on  account 
of  improvement  in  the  laws  as  on  account  of 
the  fact  that  these  laws  were  not  enforced  with 
rigor. 

The  repressive  system  had  proved  itself  an 
economic  blunder,  and  with  the  return  of  the 
inhabitants  to  a  larger  degree  of  freedom  there 
was  an  increase  in  nearly  all  kinds  of  produc- 


68         Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico, 

tion,  and  in  the  production  of  cotton  with  the 
rest  To  such  an  extent  was  the  production 
of  cotton  carried  on  in  the  last  years  of  the 
old  regime  that  it  entered  as  an  important  item 
into  the  trade  with  Spain,  but  on  account  of 
the  great  cost  of  transportation  by  land,  only 
planters  near  Vera  Cruz  were  able  to  obtain 
any  considerable  advantage  from  this  trade. 
The  amount  sent  to  Spain  in  1761  was  only 
3,350  pounds,  while  in  1810,  about  fifty  years 
later,  it  amounted  to  505,200  pounds.  These 
figures  are  not  necessarily  in  the  ratio  of  the 
amounts  produced,  for  in  the  intervening  period 
the  new  commercial  code  between  Spain  and 
her  colonies  had  established  almost  complete 
freedom  of  trade,  and  by  this  had  greatly  in- 
creased the  shipments  of  wares  both  ways. 
In  the  seven  years  from  1802  to  1808  inclusive, 
Mexico  imported  cotton  goods  to  the  value  of 
$13,152,416.  The  freedom  of  trade  which  the 
colonies  enjoyed  in  the  last  years  of  Spanish 
rule  not  only  increased  the  importations  but 
also  the  amount  of  domestic  production. 

In  the  early  part  of  this  century  cotton  was 
produced  in  nearly  every  State  of  Mexico,  but 
only  a  limited  area  in  some  of  the  States  was 
suited  to  its  cultivation.  The  regions  especially 
adapted  to  it  are  three, — the  lower  portion  of 
the  slope  toward  the  Pacific,  the  gulf  coast,  and 


Agriculture.  69 

an  interior  district  lying  between  Saltillo  and 
Chihuahua.  The  different  parts  of  these  several 
regions  are  not  of  uniform  importance.  In  the 
gulf  district  the  best  lands  are  found  in  the 
State  of  Vera  Cruz.  Yet,  during  the  war  be- 
tween the  Northern  and  Southern  States  of  the 
Union,  the  State  of  Temaulipais  produced  large 
quantities  of  cotton,  through  which  the  pro- 
ducers made  large  gains.  But  the  return  of 
peace  and  the  revival  of  the  South  deprived 
this  region  of  its  importance  in  the  production 
of  cotton.  The  amount  raised  declined  from 
year  to  year,  and  fell,  in  the  course  of  time,  to 
almost  zero.  With  the  view  of  bringing  about 
a  revival,  the  government,  in  1882,  instituted 
inquiries  and  experiments  to  determine  the  best 
means  of  restoring  the  early  prosperity,  but 
without  noteworthy  success.  In  the  State  of 
Vera  Cruz,  however,  the  cultivation  is  still  con- 
tinued, the  annual  production  amounting  ap- 
proximately to  25,000,000  pounds,  and  with 
prospects  of  extension. 

On  the  side  of  the  Pacific  the  territory 
adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  cotton  is  much 
more  extensive,  but  less  fully  developed.  It 
embraces  a  strip  of  territory  100  miles  wide, 
more  or  less,  reaching  from  Hermosillo  to  the 
border  of  Guatemala. 

The  progress  of  cotton  planting  in  this  west- 


7O         Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

ern  region,  as  well  as  the  progress  of  civilization 
generally,  has  been  greatly  impeded  by  the  lack 
of  means  of  communication.  Of  the  large 
number  of  companies  that  have  received  con- 
cessions from  the  government  to  construct  rail- 
ways to  the  Pacific,  no  one  has  as  yet  fulfilled 
the  conditions.  The  only  means  of  transporta- 
tion between  the  cities  of  Central  Mexico  and 
the  region  along  the  Pacific  is  still  the  mule 
train,  and  as  a  consequence  there  are  few  signs 
of  progress  here  that  have  not  been  observed 
during  the  last  300  years.  Under  such  condi- 
tions corn  and  fruit  are  almost  the  only  things 
cultivated,  and  these  because  they  are  the  prin- 
cipal items  of  food,  and,  for  a  large  part  of  the 
population,  the  only  food.  For  these  products 
there  is  a  local  demand,  each  community  con- 
suming the  whole  or  a  large  part  of  its  product. 
Cotton,  on  the  other  hand,  under  the  new  con- 
ditions of  manufacturing,  has  need  of  transpor- 
tation, sometimes  over  long  distances,  and  this, 
in  view  of  the  existing  want  of  facilities,  is  an 
effective  discouragement  of  its  production. 

The  existing  system  of  cotton  manufactures 
in  Mexico  had  its  origin  in  the  decade  following 
the  achievement  of  political  independence.  Lu- 
cas Alaman,  the  historian,  then  minister,  was 
influential  in  bringing  it  into  existence.  The 
first  mill  for  spinning  and  weaving  was  built  in 


Agriculture.  7 1 

Puebla,  and  was  called  "La  Constancia."  Some- 
what later,  in  1835,  another  mill  was  established 
in  the  same  city,  and  called  "El  Patriotismo," 
and  at  the  same  period  the  mill  called  "La 
Magdalena"  was  built  in  the  little  town  of 
Tlalpam,  in  the  valley  of  Mexico.  In  the  be- 
ginning the  development  was  slow,  but  in  the 
last  few  years  the  number  of  mills  has  increased 
rapidly,  and  at  present  there  are  in  the  country 
ninety-eight  establishments  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance to  be  properly  termed  cotton  mills.  As 
early  as  1842  an  experiment  in  making  prints 
was  undertaken  in  Puebla.  Other  attempts 
were  made  in  1860,  but  they  led  to  no  perma- 
nently valuable  results;  in  fact,  little  of  impor- 
tance in  this  line  was  done  till  1870,  and  it  was 
eight  years  before  there  began  to  be  observed 
a  diminution  in  the  importation  of  European 
prints.  At  first  the  mills  were  established  only 
in  the  capital  and  neighboring  towns,  for  the 
spirit  of  enterprise  was  found  concentrated  here; 
but  in  the  course  of  time  this  spirit  has  extended 
itself  to  the  outlying  parts  of  the  republic,  and 
at  present  there  is  no  part  of  the  country  that 
has  not  its  cotton  mills  of  greater  or  less  im- 
portance. 

An  apparently  sober-minded  Mexican  con- 
cludes a  discussion  on  this  subject  by  saying 
that  "we  have  immense  territories  suited  to  the 


72         Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

production  of  cotton,  which  are  still  unculti- 
vated, so  that  it  is  possible  to  raise  the  produc- 
tion of  cotton  to  a  very  respectable  figure. 
Continual  political  dissensions,  the  want  of 
means  of  communication,  and,  above  all,  the 
practice  which  is  followed  in  the  cultivation  of 
cotton,  are  the  things  which  have  contributed 
especially  to  the  low  state  in  which  the  cotton 
industry  has  been  found.  We  have,  however, 
to-day,  fortunately  entered  upon  a  new  era  of 
beneficent  peace;  the  ways  of  communication 
are  becoming  easier,  circumstances  which  tend 
to  the  advancement  of  the  industry  in  question. 
But  there  is  still  something  wanting;  the  culti- 
vators must  abandon  their  methods,  and  under- 
take their  agricultural  work  in  the  light  of  the 
most  advanced  knowledge;  they  must  learn 
new  methods,  and  inform  themselves  how  to 
overcome  the  difficulties  of  this  form  of  cultiva- 
tion. When  this  happens,  there  will  unquestion- 
ably come  an  increase  in  the  production  of 
lands  already  cultivated,  and  the  area  of  culti- 
vation will  be  extended.  Then  Mexico  will 
occupy  a  very  high  place,  if  not  the  first  place, 
among  the  cotton-growing  countries."  This 
last  expression  may,  perhaps,  involve  a  slight 
exaggeration,  and  more  or  less  ignorance  of  the 
resources  of  eastern  Texas,  but  it  indicates  the 
strong  conviction  of  one  who  has  wandered 
over  a  large  portion  of  his  country  for  the  pur- 
pose of  investigating  its  resources  in  this  regard. 


CHAPTER   IV. 


THE   CITIES. 

MUCH  light  may  be  thrown  on  the  character 
of  the  economic  revolution  now  in  progress  in 
Mexico  by  observing  also  what  Mexican  cities 
were  before  railways  reached  them,  and  what 
they  are  now  becoming  under  new  influences. 
Their  conditions  were  unlike  the  conditions  of 
either  those  cities  of  the  United  States  that 
have  recently  grown  into  importance,  depend- 
ing in  the  beginning  on  older  centers  of  popula- 
tion, or  those  that  existed  in  the  eastern  part 
of  the  country  before  railways  were  built.  The 
difference  between  them  and  the  more  recently 
developed  American  cities  is  the  difference 
between  an  independent  growth  and  growth 
fostered  from  some  external  source.  The  points 
in  which  they  differed  from  the  American  cities 
of  the  period  before  the  railway  are  mainly 
two:  They  were  more  completely  isolated 
and  compelled  to  be  self-dependent,  and  their 
inhabitants  comprised  two  classes  distinctly 
separated  by  different  race  characteristics,  the 

(73) 


74        Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

very  large  majority  of  whom  were  Indians. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  in  Mexico  the 
new  order  of  things  introduced  by  the  means 
of  rapid  transportation  is  to  be  equally  advan- 
tageous to  all  places.  Towns  that  have  already 
been  developed  in  Mexico  have  grown  in  obedi- 
ence to  forces  that  will  not  necessarily  remain 
the  dominant  forces.  The  currents  of  trade 
and  the  centers  of  distribution  are  not  neces- 
sarily the  same  before  and  after  the  introduc- 
tion of  railways.  A  town,  by  reason  of  its 
position  and  the  energy  of  a  few  of  its  inhabit- 
ants, may  become  an  important  distributing 
center;  its  merchants  may  hold  large  quantities 
of  goods  in  stock,  and  may  supply  the  dealers 
in  the  towns  of  the  adjacent  region.  The 
building  of  a  railway  to  that  town,  and  through 
the  region  which  has  become  tributary  to  it, 
may  destroy  its  trade  and  its  relative  impor- 
tance at  a  single  blow.  The  dealers  in  other 
towns,  who  have  been  its  customers,  are  en- 
abled to  go  directly  to  its  source  of  supply. 
In  this  process  of  developing  a  few  large  centers 
of  trade,  some  of  the  hitherto  existing  smaller 
ones  are  either  left  stationary  or  caused  to 
decline. 

Probably  the  present  condition  of  no  Mexican 
city  illustrates  the  early  condition  of  all  of  them 
better  than  that  of  Oaxaca.  It  has  been  easily 


The  Cities.  75 

accessible  for  so  short  a  period  that  its  circum- 
stances are  essentially  what  they  were  before 
the  railway  was  built.  Through  three  cen- 
turies of  its  history  it  has  grown  as  an  interior 
town,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  term.  It  lies 
in  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  fertile  valleys 
of  Mexico,  or  rather  at  the  meeting  point  of 
three  valleys.  It  is  shut  off  from  the  ocean 
on  the  south  by  a  solid  range  of  mountains;  it 
is  separated  from  the  cities  of  Central  Mexico 
on  the  north  by  a  mass  of  rough  and  broken 
country.  The  region  of  which  it  is  the  center 
is  a  part  of  the  world  by  itself,  and  the  com- 
munity which  occupies  it  is  practically  a  self- 
sufficing  body  of  people.  The  population  has 
grown  so  slowly  through  its  long  existence 
that  it  has  learned  to  satisfy  its  wants,  as  they 
have  appeared,  by  its  own  products.  The 
hand  looms  which  have  been  used  for  genera- 
tions are  still  used.  The  pottery  which  the 
inhabitants  of  this  region  must  have  learned 
to  make  centuries  ago,  is  still  made  and  turned 
to  all  conceivable  uses,  from  cooking  stoves  to 
children's  toys.  Articles  made  from  the  potter's 
clay  serve  most  of  the  purposes  of  our  articles 
of  iron  or  tin  or  wood  or  brass.  If  you  wish 
a  bell,  you  will  buy  it  of  the  potter.  If  you 
wish  a  whistle,  you  will  buy  it  of  the  potter.  If 
you  wish  tiles  to  cover  the  dome  of  the  cathe- 


76         Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

dral,  you  will  buy  them  of  the  potter.  In  fact, 
from  the  great  variety  of  uses  to  which  the 
potter's  clay  is  put,  we  readily  see  that  life 
before  the  iron  age  was  not  necessarily  mean. 
Other  apparently  simple  materials  are  also  made 
to  serve  a  large  number  of  ends.  The  maguey 
plant  is  a  familiar  instance  of  a  single  kind  of 
material  put  to  a  multitude  of  uses.  So  skill- 
fully, under  the  pressure  of  necessity,  have 
the  resources  of  this  region  been  utilized,  that 
if  a  wall  of  absolute  exclusion  were  built  along 
the  ridge  of  the  encircling  mountains,  the  life 
of  the  community  would  go  on  without  note- 
worthy inconvenience  to  the  bulk  of  the  in- 
habitants. The  well-cultivated  cornfields  would 
produce,  as  they  do  now,  an  abundant  supply 
of  the  staple  food.  The  flocks  and  the  herds 
would  multiply,  as  they  do  now,  and  their  skins 
would  be  turned  into  sandals,  shoes,  and  other 
articles  of  clothing.  On  the  physical  side  there 
would  be  few  wants  unsatisfied.  As  now,  few 
would  be  rich,  and  each  would  have  something. 
This  condition  of  Oaxaca  is  typical  of  the 
condition  of  all  Mexican  towns  that  have 
grown  up  where  they  are  by  reason  of  their 
rich  agricultural  neighborhood.  When  the  rail- 
way first  reaches  them,  they  have  no  use  for 
it.  Their  produce  and  manufactured  articles 
have  their  long-established  currents  of  move- 


The  Cities.  77 

ment,  and  the  inhabitants  themselves  have  no 
desire  to  make  long  journeys.  This  condition 
of  things  is  the  basis  of  the  remark  by  an 
engineer  who  has  had  great  experience  in  locat- 
ing railways  in  Mexico,  that  it  is  never  worth 
the  while  to  go  out  of  the  way  to  reach  a 
Mexican  town,  but  quite  worth  a  special  effort 
to  reach  the  great  plantations.  This  would  be 
permanently  true  if  the  towns  were  to  remain 
as  the  railways  find  them.  But  they  do  not  so 
remain.  The  coming  of  the  railway  means  for 
the  town  a  transformation  of  its  life.  We  may 
examine  the  case,  and,  perhaps,  reach  the  con- 
clusion that  the  transformation  is  not  desirable ; 
that  it  means  loss  of  original  character  and  con- 
sequent deterioration.  Nevertheless,  the  change 
will  come.  The  railway  remains  and  creates  a 
demand  for  its  services;  it  carries  wares  from 
without  into  the  town,  which  from  being  at 
first  luxuries  become  necessities.  Some  domes- 
tic manufactures  decline,  other  lines  of  produc- 
tion are  stimulated;  and  the  buying  and  selling 
of  goods  become  more  conspicuous  features  of 
the  town's  life.  With  a  more  extensive  use  of 
things  from  without  there  arises  the  desire  to 
see  some  part  of  the  country  beyond  the  im- 
mediate horizon.  Thus  the  town  grows  away 
from  its  original  character,  and  becomes  merged 
in  the  larger  life  of  the  country  or  the  world. 


78         Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

But  this  transformation  does  not  come  sud- 
denly with  the  appearance  of  the  railway. 
Long  after  the  new  means  of  transportation 
have  been  established,  we  find  some  part  of  the 
trade  of  a  region  running  in  its  old  channels. 
The  Indian  and  his  donkey  are  the  persistent 
rivals  of  the  railways;  and  the  Indians  without 
donkeys  are  carriers  with  whom  it  is  hard  to 
compete.  Even  such  cheap  and  heavy  goods  as 
coarse  terra-cotta  jars  are  still  carried  by  men 
from  the  valley  of  Toluca  to  the  City  of  Mexico, 
along  the  highway  which,  for  some  part  of  the 
distance,  runs  parallel  with  the  Mexican  Na- 
tional Railway. 

The  case  of  Oaxaca  is  still  not  quite  typical ; 
its  extreme  isolation  and  the  productiveness  of 
the  surrounding  country  have  made  its  con- 
dition different,  on  the  one  hand,  from  that  of 
towns  like  Jalapa  and  Orizaba,  on  the  great 
ancient  highways,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  from 
towns  like  Zacatecas  and  Guanajuato,  which 
are  great  mining  camps  of  long  standing,  and 
have  come  into  existence  without  reference  to 
the  agricultural  qualities  of  the  adjacent  ter- 
ritory. 

In  the  ancient  days  there  were  two  roads 
leading  from  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz  to  the  City 
of  Mexico,  and  the  principal  towns  through 
which  these  passed,  Jalapa,  Orizaba,  and  Puebla, 


The  Cities.  79 

were  naturally  more  or  less  in  touch  with  one 
another  and  with  various  points  of  the  world 
beyond.  The  traffic  which  passed  over  these 
roads  and  through  these  towns  made  them  less 
isolated  than  Oaxaca,  and  suggested  that  by 
producing  for  others  than  their  own  inhabit- 
ants they  might  have  some  part  in  the  advan- 
tages of  this  traffic.  Thus,  when  they  were 
reached  by  railways,  they  had  made  some  prog- 
ress in  trade  beyond  their  borders. 

Jalapa  became  the  seat  of  a  fair  in  the  eight- 
eenth century,  which  was  intended  to  hold 
the  same  relation  to  the  trade  between  Spain 
and  Mexico  that  the  great  fair  at  Porto  Bello, 
on  the  isthmus,  held  to  the  trade  between 
Spain  and  South  America.  In  order  to  avoid 
the  effects  of  the  unwholesome  climate  of  the 
coast,  goods  arriving  at  Vera  Cruz  were  trans- 
ported to  Jalapa,  to  be  there  exchanged  for 
Mexican  products  destined  to  be  exported  to 
Spain.  Jalapa  was  chosen  for  this  purpose, 
although  an  inland  town,  because  of  its  agree- 
ableness  and  healthfulness  as  a  place  of  resi- 
dence. It  lies  among  the  hills  about  half  way 
up  the  eastern  slope.  It  is  sufficiently  warm 
to  permit  many  tropical  plants  to  thrive,  and, 
as  it  is  favored  with  rain  at  all  seasons,  the 
neighboring  valleys  and  hillsides  are  perpetually 
fresh  and  green.  From  the  plaza,  where  one 


8o        Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

has  the  higher  part  of  the  town  above  him, 
and  overlooks  the  lower  part  and  the  broken 
country  in  the  distance,  the  world  appears 
a  very  beautiful  place.  Persons  arriving  from 
Spain  were  accustomed  to  come  immediately 
to  this  place  to  rest  after  the  long  voyage  be- 
fore completing  the  journey  to  Mexico;  and 
here  those  intending  to  depart  for  Spain  waited 
till  the  vessels  were  ready  to  sail,  as  the  old 
geographer,  Velasco,  puts  it,  "in  order  not  to 
be  in  Vera  Cruz,  on  account  of  the  danger  of 
becoming  ill."  And  the  town  has  kept  this 
character.  Although  great  wealth  is  produced 
on  the  coffee  plantations  not  far  away,  still 
Jalapa  does  not  figure  as  a  center  of  commerce 
or  manufactures,  but  as  a  resort  for  pleasure, 
or  a  place  of  waiting  till  the  ships  go  out. 
And  in  this  character  it  is  becoming  more  con- 
spicuous since  the  completion  of  the  Inter- 
oceanic  Railway  from  Mexico  to  Vera  Cruz, 
which,  in  descending  from  the  table-land  to  the 
coast,  passes  through  Jalapa.  As  a  sign  of 
this  change,  one  of  the  old  hotels  has  taken  a 
new  name,  and  has  become  the  Grand  Hotel, 
with  all  the  solemn  pretensions,  the  mingled 
subserviency  and  impudence,  and  the  multi- 
tudinous extras  which  that  title  attached  to  a 
hotel  for  tourists  often  implies. 

The  old  roads  from  the  coast  to  the  capital 


The  Cities.  81 

have  been  supplanted  by  the  railways,  the 
northern,  that  passing  through  Jalapa,  by  the 
Interoceanic;  the  southern,  that  passing  through 
Orizaba,  by  the  Mexican  Railway.  Orizaba, 
like  Jalapa,  lies  about  midway  between  the  two 
extremes  of  the  coast  and  the  plateau,  but  in 
most  other  respects  the  two  towns  stand  in 
sharp  contrast  with  one  another.  At  Jalapa  the 
view  ranges  over  a  wide  extent  of  hills  and 
valleys;  at  Orizaba  it  is  limited  by  the  closely 
surrounding  mountains.  Jalapa  has  apparently 
few  and  unimportant  industries,  while  Orizaba 
is  one  of  the  busiest  manufacturing  towns 
of  Mexico.  Its  cotton  and  jute  mills  employ 
a  large  number  of  laborers.  Lying  on  the  line 
of  the  oldest  railway  in  the  country,  not  far 
from  Vera  Cruz,  and  with  easy  access  to  the 
interior  cities,  it  has  unusual  facilities  for  ob- 
taining imported  raw  material  and  for  reaching 
markets  for  its  finished  products.  The  rapid 
stream  which  passes  through  the  valley  fur- 
nishes adequate  water  power,  and  in  this  lies 
one  of  its  special  advantages  as  a  manufactur- 
ing town;  for  one  of  the  serious  problems  of 
manufacturing  in  Mexico  is  the  problem  of  fuel. 
Whoever  will  solve  this  problem  will  not  only 
have  an  easy  opportunity  to  acquire  a  fortune, 
but  will  also  give  the  industrial  development 
of  the  country  a  powerful  stimulus.  Certain 
6 


82        Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

patents  have  already  been  issued  for  making  a 
composite  fuel,  with  peat  as  a  basis,  and  one 
of  the  attempts  under  these  patents  is  in  an 
advanced  stage  of  experiment.  The  peat  is  to 
be  obtained  from  the  marshes  near  the  lakes 
in  the  valley  of  Mexico.  At  present  the  per- 
sons having  this  enterprise  in  hand  fix  no  price 
for  their  product,  but  offer  to  those  using  fuel 
for  mechanical  purposes  to  do  the  work  at  ten 
per  cent  below  the  present  cost.  If  successful, 
this  undertaking  will  be  of  importance  even  to 
some  places  where  water  is  ordinarily  used  as 
a  motive  power;  for  in  places  like  Orizaba  there 
are  sometimes  periods  of  drought  when  it  is 
necessary  to  resort  to  steam,  and  also  periods 
of  too  great  abundance,  when  the  stones  and 
debris  of  various  kinds  brought  down  render 
the  use  of  the  water  at  least  inconvenient. 

In  addition  to  her  cotton  and  jute  mills,  Ori- 
zaba is  also  taking  a  hand  in  one  of  the  newer 
industries  of  Mexico, — that  of  brewing  beer. 
This  enterprise  is  conducted  by  Germans,  and 
they  claim  for  it  a  special  advantage  in  the 
excellence  of  the  water  obtained.  The  demand 
keeps  pace  with  the  production,  which  is  good 
for  the  business,  but  bad  for  the  beer.  But 
the  beer  of  Toluca  appears  to  have  the  widest 
market.  It  is  found  wherever  the  means  of 
transportation  have  made  it  feasible  to  carry  it 


The  Cities.  83 

Men,  women,  and  children  run  about  with  it 
at  the  railway  stations,  offering  it  for  sale,  and 
even  the  pulque  venders  are  not  more  ener- 
getic in  their  attempts  to  secure  a  market.  It 
seems  to  be  the  growing  fashion  to  drink  the 
beer  of  the  country,  and  the  fashion  is  un- 
doubtedly encouraged  by  the  fact  that  it  sells 
for  half  the  price  of  imported  beer. 

The  success  of  this  undertaking  is  in  part 
due  to  the  fact  that  at  present  the  Mexicans 
are  looking  for  a  drink.  The  use  of  pulque  is 
almost  limited  to  the  comparatively  small  part 
of  the  country  where  it  is  produced,  on  ac- 
count of  the  impossibility  of  keeping  it,  except 
for  a  very  short  time,  after  it  is  ready  for  use. 
The  railways  have  extended  somewhat  the  ter- 
ritory of  its  consumption.  It  may  now  be  car- 
ried from  the  plantations  near  Puebla  to  Oax- 
aca,  which,  before  the  building  of  the  Mexican 
Southern  Railway,  was  without  the  limits  of 
the  pulque  region.  But,  after  all,  it  is  the  drink 
of  the  Indians,  and  this  means  much  in  Mex- 
ico; it  means  that  the  classes  socially  above  the 
Indians  must  have  something  else  Hitherto 
some  form  of  brandy,  or  a  miserable  concoction 
called  French  wine,  has  been  extensively  used, 
and  if  the  brewing  of  beer  will  furnish  a  partial 
substitute  for  one  or  both  of  these,  the  effort 
will  be  in  the  line  of  reform. 


84        Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

But  the  cities  of  Central  Mexico  which  ap- 
pear to  have  felt  especially  the  force  of  the 
new  stimulus  are  Puebla  and  the  City  of  Mex- 
ico. Both  are  points  from  which  a  number  of 
railways  radiate.  From  Puebla  the  Mexican 
Southern  reaches  Oaxaca,  and,  in  general,  South- 
ern Mexico;  the  Interoceanic  runs  out  in  three 
directions,  to  Matamoras  and  beyond  on  the 
way  to  Acapulco,  to  the  City  of  Mexico,  and 
to  Vera  Cruz;  and  the  Mexican  Railway  gives 
Puebla  another  line  of  communication  with  the 
City  of  Mexico  and  with  the  coast.  These 
make  Puebla,  as  a  railway  center,  second  only 
to  the  capital.  At  present  both  its  population 
and  its  industries  are  increasing,  and  the  vari- 
ety and  distribution  of  the  industries  help  to 
give  the  city  an  air  of  general  prosperity.  Its 
textile  industries  are  the  most  conspicuous;  in 
fact,  in  all  parts  of  Mexico  at  present  this 
branch  of  manufacturing  is  under  the  powerful 
stimulus  of  a  high  import  duty,  which  is  prac- 
tically doubled  in  consequence  of  the  fall  in 
the  value  of  silver.  In  addition  to  these  ad- 
vantages for  the  manufacturer,  some  of  the 
States  have  granted  special  privileges  to  the  pro- 
ducers of  textile  fabrics,  such  as  freedom  from 
taxation,  the  government  granting  the  privi- 
lege, expecting,  at  least  in  some  cases,  that  the 
manufacturer  will  produce  a  certain  amount, 


The  Cities.  85 

or  supply  the  local  market.  The  strong  de- 
mand in  the  country  is  for  the  cheaper  articles, 
such  as  prints  and  plain  unbleached  cotton, 
the  latter  constituting  the  principal  part  of  the 
clothing  of  the  people.  In  the  cities,  however, 
there  is  an  increasing  number  of  persons  who 
are  adopting  the  European  style  of  dress  for 
men,  and  this  makes  an  increasing  demand  for 
woolen  goods  suitable  for  this  purpose;  and  the 
attempt  to  supply  this  demand  with  domestic 
products  is  one  of  the  noticeable  recent  devel- 
opments in  the  textile  industries.  That  profit 
is  coming  to  Puebla  from  her  participation  in 
enterprises  along  these  lines  is  clearly  evident. 
If  we  may  judge  from  their  wares,  the  man- 
ufacturers of  Puebla  have  a  liking  for  strong 
colors.  This  is  manifest  in  their  brilliant  scra- 
pes, particularly  those  made  of  cotton  and  in- 
tended for  the  smaller  interior  towns.  Some- 
times these  colors  are  combined  with  great 
artistic  effect.  This  is  especially  true  in  the 
decoration  of  some  of  the  products  of  the  pot- 
teries. It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  crockery 
decoration  finer  combinations  of  colors  than 
may  be  seen  in  the  exterior  painting  on  certain 
bowls  made  in  Puebla.  The  material  is  coarse, 
and  the  glazing  is  often  imperfect,  but  those 
who  apply  the  colors  have  certainly  the  sense 
of  color  in  rare  development. 


86        Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

As  long  as  communication  was  difficult,  each 
district  produced  the  earthenware  used  by  the 
common  people  of  the  district.  This  local  de- 
velopment led  to  great  individuality  of  design  in 
form  and  ornamentation,  and  in  some  places  one 
can  observe  the  very  beginnings  of  the  artistic 
sense  making  itself  manifest  in  the  products  of 
industry.  In  some  cases  the  development  of 
this  sense  has  been  arrested  very  early,  and 
what  was  the  beginning  of  artistic  activity  has 
become  simply  conventional  work,  in  performing 
which  the  workers  have  apparently  no  thought 
of  further  progress.  In  other  cases  several 
steps  have  been  taken.  In  the  little  village  of 
San  Antonio,  near  Cuernavaca,  the  only  con- 
ception of  ornamenting  which  has  arisen  in 
the  primitive  minds  of  the  potters,  is  that  of 
pressing  into  the  sides  of  the  jar  or  dish  of 
whatever  sort,  before  it  is  baked,  small  fragments 
of  china  or  glass,  and  with  these  making  lines 
or  figures.  Sometimes,  in  the  most  sublime 
flights  of  their  artistic  imaginations,  they  ar- 
range these  fragments  in  such  form  that  they 
present  the  outlines  of  a  bird  or  some  four- 
footed  beast  not  distinctly  specified.  In  watch- 
ing the  old  women  press  these  small  pieces  of 
china  into  the  clay  of  the  unbaked  vessel,  one 
observes  that  there  is  apparently  not  the  slight- 
est mental  effort  to  depart  from  the  rigid  con- 


The  Cities.  87 

ventional  form.  The  modern  artists  of  Rome 
or  Paris  differ  from  these  artists  of  the  mud 
hovels  of  San  Antonio  in  that,  while  they  rec- 
ognize and  are  more  or  less  dominated  by  con- 
ventional forms,  they  strive  to  depart  from  them 
to  such  an  extent,  at  least,  as  to  make  their 
works  a  variation  on  the  conventional  theme. 
When  this  striving  ceases,  art  falls  to  the  posi- 
tion of  pottery  decorating  in  San  Antonio.  In 
Puebla  the  painting  is  of  a  much  higher  order, 
although  on  plates  and  cups  and  bowls  painted 
by  hand,  which  sell  for  two  or  three  cents 
apiece,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  painter 
will  lavish  a  large  amount  of  artistic  invention. 
Yet  it  is  evident  from  the  production  of  new 
forms  and  the  variety  of  decorations  that  the 
force  of  originality  is  not  extinct 

With  the  development  of  facilities  for  trans- 
portation there  is  a  tendency  to  demand  certain 
preferred  kinds  of  wares,  although  they  may 
not  be  produced  in  the  district.  This  leads  to 
the  concentration  of  productive  forces  at  points 
where  the  wares  demanded  are  made.  The 
railway,  therefore,  as  it  affects  these  things, 
brings  a  stimulus  to  the  production  of  the  pre- 
ferred articles,  and  applies  a  suppressing  force 
to  the  production  of  the  others,  in  this  way 
causing  in  the  realm  of  inanimate  things  the 
survival  of  the  fittest. 


88        Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

As  might  well  be  expected,  the  signs  of 
change  are  more  manifest  in  the  City  of  Mexico 
than  in  any  other  town.  As  the  capital  of  the 
kingdom,  as  the  point  at  which  more  railways 
converge  than  at  any  other  place,  and  as  the 
principal  residence  of  the  wealthy,  there  are 
naturally  more  forces  which  make  for  progress 
operating  here  than  elsewhere  in  Mexico.  It  is 
found,  therefore,  that  in  the  last  ten  years  impor- 
tant additions  have  been  made  to  the  buildings 
on  the  side  towards  Chapultepec,  and  the  style 
of  them  indicates  that  foreigners  have  directed 
their  construction.  In  the  central  part  of  the 
city  the  transformation  is  evident  in  better 
pavements,  better  lighting,  and  finer  shops. 
The  prominence  given  to  the  industry  of  making 
and  trimming  ladies'  hats,  where  not  long  since 
the  mantilla  and  the  roboso  held  the  field,  is  a 
clear  indication  that  a  new  age  has  dawned.  In 
considering  the  activity  that  goes  on  at  certain 
points,  one  might  easily  imagine  himself  in  a 
European  capital. 

But  here  where  I  write,  on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Patzcuaro,  it  would  be  easy  to  forget  that  prog- 
ress has  been  made  in  Mexico  or  anywhere  else. 
The  scene  and  circumstances  are  those  of  prim- 
itive society.  At  different  points  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  lake,  and  on  the  steep  slope  of 
the  principal  island,  are  Indian  villages,  where 


The  Cities.  89 

the  life  that  is  lived  to-day  is  essentially  the 
same  as  that  of  five  hundred  years  ago;  and  the 
features  of  the  scene  at  this  moment  are  surely 
of  the  ancient  world  From  all  points  of  the 
lake  more  than  a  hundred  canoes,  or  "dugouts," 
are  moving  in  converging  lines  to  a  point  on 
this  shore.  The  modern  art  of  making  boats 
has  clearly  not  influenced  the  builders  of  these 
primitive  vessels,  which  are  in  the  shape  of  a 
Chinaman's  shoe,  except  that  the  width  is  very 
much  less  in  proportion  to  the  length.  The 
bottom  is  flat  and  the  widest  part  of  the  craft, 
the  sides  sloping  inward  towards  the  top.  They 
are  propelled  not  by  oars,  but  by  paddles,  which 
consist  of  a  straight  stick  with  a  circular  disk, 
of  about  ten  inches  in  diameter,  at  the  end. 
They  are  manned  by  men  and  women,  or  by 
men  or  women,  as  it  may  happen.  Three  times 
a  week  they  make  this  trip  across  the  lake, 
bringing  their  wares  to  a  common  market-place, 
and  return  late  in  the  afternoon  with  the  prod- 
uce of  their  exchanges.  The  wares  which 
they  offer  are  such  as  their  ancestors  might  have 
brought  to  market  centuries  before  the  conquest. 
In  fact,  this  part  of  Mexico  remains  yet  to  be 
conquered,  if  by  that  term  is  meant  subjected 
to  the  forces  and  laws  of  progressive  civilization. 
Yet  in  strange  contrast  with  the  products  of 


go        Railway  Revolution  in  Mexico. 

this  semi-barbarous  society,  the  miserable  little 
village  of  Tzintzuntzan,  on  the  shore  of  the 
lake,  possesses  the  finest  picture  in  Mexico, 
an  excellent  example  of  the  work  of  no  less  a 
master  than  the  great  Titian.  * 


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